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The district has added a restroom, shelter, benches, bike station and a train-themed playground, said Chris Crowley, chief ranger and operations manager of the Clark County Park District. The district manages six miles of the trail.
“We are going to have a dog station for people to deposit their dog waste, some new trash cans, a kiosk and a new trail sign,” he said.
The parks district will hold a grand opening of the renovated Beatty Station at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 7.
Runner Brennan Miller is happy about the changes. He has been using the trail since middle school.
DETAILS: You have to see this bird’s-eye view of High and Fountain streets from the 1930s
“I remember them slowly adding some stuff and then all of a sudden, there was an entire shelter house, which I kind of like. It makes it feel more like a park area,” Miller said,
He’s most excited about the bathrooms, he said, because the former portable toilets can get gross.
“Sometimes people smoke in the Porta-Potty and it smells really bad in there, especially like after you run, you need more air so it smells worse,” Miller said.
The upgrades were made possible by a state-funded grant. The district received a Nature Works grant that it applied for two years ago, Crowley said, and was granted through the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
About 75 percent of the money was granted through the state. The rest of the funds had to be sourced from a local match, he said. The district received help from Springfield-Clark County Career Technical Center students and Friends of the Clark County Park District. These groups made donations and also provided labor on the trail and Beatty Station improvements, as did park staff and volunteers.
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