Dalton getting greener

Published 9:45 pm Sunday, January 3, 2016

Five years ago, city officials laid out ambitious plans for a series of biking and walking trails that would connect the Crown Mill area to downtown Dalton, Mill Creek and Mount Rachel and to what city officials called the area’s “crown jewel,” Haig Mill Lake. They referred to these areas as the city’s “green hat.”

Two years ago, they completed the first part of that plan, opening a 1.8-mile hiking and biking trail on Mount Rachel, funded solely through state and federal grants.

In March of last year, voters gave them the go-ahead for perhaps the most significant part of the plan by approving a four-year, $63.6 million SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) that contains $5 million for a recreation complex on Haig Mill Lake.

City officials are expected to find out by February what the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) will allow them to do at Haig Mill Lake. Based on what the EPD has allowed at similar locations, officials believe they’ll be able to offer at minimum paddle boats and a fishing pier, as well as a walking and biking trail around the lake. But some of the other amenities they would like to include are an outdoor classroom, primitive-style camping, a beach and a pavilion.

They have just received notice to proceed from the Georgia Department of Transportation to begin work on a “greenway” extending from Chattanooga Avenue down an abandoned railroad spur to Rachel Street. It will be a 10-foot asphalt walking and bicycling path with lights and landscaping. The greenway will link to the trailhead of the Mount Rachel hiking and bicycling trail on Rachel Street and to a pocket park on Chattanooga Avenue. The greenway is being funded by state grants.

And now, officials are looking at linking all of those projects together with a trail along Mill Creek.

The Mill Creek River Walk, as city officials are calling it, would start near that Chattanooga Avenue pocket park and run alongside of Mill Creek north about a mile toward Haig Mill Lake, linking to the hiking and bicycling trail around the lake. It would also have places to put boats into Mill Creek and to take them out, opening the creek up to canoeing. City officials are seeking funding for the project from a number of sources.

All of these projects promise to make Dalton a more attractive city, to provide residents with more to do and to help us attract both more residents and tourists.

We applaud city leaders for their vision and for their efforts to make that vision a reality.