State honors group for turning rails to trails - The Times Herald

"State honors group for turning rails to trails" from the Wednesday, November 15th 2000 issue of The Times Herald

Cattaraugus Local Development Corporation created 12-mile rec. trail in center of county

The Cattaraugus Local Development Corporation received an Innovation Award at the New York State Parks and Conservation Association's first state convention.

The convention was held in Syracuse, and the association presented five awards to organizations and people throughout the state who were involved with creating and developing trails. The Cattaraugus Local Development Corp. , based in the town of Cattaraugus shared its award with the Southern Tier Association for Rails to Trails (START).

The award was presented to Richard LeFeber, executive director of the Cattaraugus Local Development Corp. That group formed the rails to trails association to oversee taking ownership of an abandoned rail-road bed owned by the Cattaraugus County Industrial Development Agency and to convert the bed into a recreational trail. The trail was named the Iroquois Recreation Trail .

After Rails to Trails was organized, its members attended some 150 meetings with local municipalities, government agencies, civic organizations, concerned citizens and others.

Since 1999 START was awarded two state grants totaling about $1.5 million to build the 12-mile trail from Salamanca to Cattaraugus. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in May to celebrate the support the trail project had received at local, state and federal levels. Work is expected to start in the spring, including building a Friendship Arch where the trail passes through the village of Little Valley.

Cattaraugus Local Development Corp. officials the project was intended as a model for how to complete trail projects in a short time. Rails to Trails was able to rally the support and funding in less than two years.