The creation of a new trails master plan in Owen Sound is moving forward.
An open house was held Thursday to discuss the project and will soon be followed by the unveiling of a preliminary plan sometime in mid-winter.
The final plan — along with a published map of the city’s trail network — will be presented in the spring.
The idea of Thursday’s open house was to continue to solicit public input into the master plan.
Only 20 people showed up, a far cry from the 70 or so who attended an earlier public session.
But Trails Project Coordinator Josh Choronzey says interest remains high in the city’s trails network.
He says there are about 45 kilometres of trails within five minutes of Owen Sound’s downtown — the Bruce Trail, the rail trails, the Harrison Park trails and the conservation authority trails are the primary ones.
Choronzey says he not only sees people on those trails regularly, he is in frequent contact with users who have issues or concerns with something they find out there.
An inventory of trails has been completed and the publication of a map will be a big improvement over what the city has had up until now.
A study from 1997 did not provide a proper map, nor did it come with any literature about the network.
The establishment of a master plan is part of a larger project called the Owen Sound Safe Trails Network.
Ultimately, the project will implement and promote the high-priority features of the plan.
The city’s partners in this project are the Bruce-Grey Catholic School Board, the Family Y and the Grey Bruce Health Unit.
The project is mainly being funded by a 50 thousand dollar grant from the provincial Ministry of Health Promotion’s Healthy Communities Fund.
The city has also contributed 15 thousand dollars.
