TECH OKS HUCKLEBERRY ON CAMPUS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993                   TAG: 9303110269
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ROB LANDRY SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
TECH OKS HUCKLEBERRY ON CAMPUS
The project to turn the old Huckleberry rail line between Blacksburg and Christiansburg into a community greenway is on the express line to success.
Virginia Tech's Board of Visitors has approved a recommendation to allow trail improvements on the section that crosses university land.
Tech will retain ownership of that part of the trail, said Bob Criminger, vice president of facilities. "But the Friends of the Huckleberry are free to alter the trail for recreational use."
The trail passes close to Tech's Corporate Research Center. Tech will retain ownership of the land because in the future the route may have to be rerouted to accommodate university expansion, Criminger said.
Friends of the Huckleberry are concentrating on renovating a five-mile stretch of the trail that would connect the Tech campus to the New River Valley Mall.
In the future, plans call for the trail to run all to way to Christiansburg and eventually to hook up to the New River Trail, which runs from Pulaski to Galax.
More than $108,000 has been raised for the project so far, said Bill Ellenbogen, owner of Bogen's restaurant in Blacksburg. Ellenbogen is president of Friends of the Huckleberry.
The German Club at Tech will clear part of the route on March 27, and activities are being planned for National Trails Day on June 5.
Ellenbogen says the first phase of the trail will be completed this fall.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB