Talent greenway options considered

By Maggie McGehee

Ashland Daily Tidings

TALENT - The Bear Creek Greenway skirting the edge of town may have company in the near future under a committee's proposal to add a Wagner Creek Greenway.

The committee is developing a master plan for the Bear Creek Greenway. The plan, still in its preliminary stages, includes increasing the accessibility of the Howard Young ponds in Talent for educational purposes and possibly creating a Wagner Creek Greenway from Rapp Road to Bear Creek, according to Meghan Mac Kenzie, Talent's assistant planner.

"Basically, we're setting up the provisions of what we'd like Wagner Creek to look like," Mac Kenzie said. "We're still deciding bike paths and stuff like that."

Mac Kenzie stressed that the creation of a Wagner Creek Greenway doesn't necessarily mean that it will include all the features of the Bear Creek Greenway.

"A greenway is just setting up a certain perimeter along a creek and having it stay in its natural state," she said. "The committee has some wonderful ideas that we're going to come back to and look at implementing in the greenway. In mid-July, the city council will be presented with a master plan. I don't expect the implementation phase to start until September ...

"It's not going to be something that happens overnight," Mac Kenzie said. "Having this completed only nears us to our goal of having a completed greenway."

The next greenway committee meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 19 at the Oak Valley Club House on West Valley View Road. Members of the public who are concerned or have any ideas about the future of the greenway are welcome to attend.

Mac Kenzie said the purpose of the meetings and the greenway master plan can best be described by the committee's vision statement "to create and enhance greenways along Wagner and Bear Creeks that will preserve the natural wildlife and habitat; provide beautiful common space for the people of Talent and visitors; and provide an area of environmental education and recreation interests."

Mac Kenzie hopes improvements to the Bear Creek Greenway and the possible creation of a Wagner Creek Greenway will not only act as an educational tool for students, but also for adults.

"We really want to focus on the educational opportunities of the greenway, about flooding and the importance of being safe and how the greenway helps during those situations," she said.