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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 5, 1994                   TAG: 9401050092
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS staff writer
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

RED TAPE HOLDS UP MONEY FOR TRAILS

Bureaucratic red tape has delayed funding for two local projects involving historic trails, but the money's still on its way, according to a state official.

"We're moving forward at a snail's pace," said R.O. Cassada, a representative of the Virginia Department of Transportation.

Cassada originally predicted that the Huckleberry Trail and Ingles Ferry projects would receive the federal money they were awarded by Jan. 1.

Yet the paperwork of transferring the money from the federal government to the state and then to the local projects has been a slow ordeal, Cassada said.

The delay in funding is "disappointing," said Bill Ellenbogen, president of Friends of the Huckleberry. "We're ready to move forward. We want to have [the trail] in this year," he said.

In October, the Commonwealth Transportation Board approved $453,424 for the Huckleberry Trail and $136,000 for Ingles Ferry. Those were among 37 Virginia projects to be funded by the Federal Highway Administration from gasoline-tax revenue.

The Huckleberry Trail will be a five-mile hiking and biking path connecting the New River Valley Mall and the Blacksburg Library along an abandoned rail line.

The Ingles Ferry project will revive a historic 18th-century pedestrian ferry across the New River between Radford and Pulaski County. An 18th century tavern nearby also will be restored along with part of the original Wilderness Road, a settler's trail.

Critical aspects of the Huckleberry Trail project such as land acquisition a cannot be completed until the money is available, Ellenbogen said. Likewise, preliminary site work on the two- to three-year Ingles Ferry project won't begin until the money has trickled down, said Lewis I. "Bud" Jeffries of the Radford Heritage Foundation.

The state plans to meet with local projects organizations within a month to explain the funding process, Cassada said. So it's uncertain when major construction on either project can begin.

"We're anxiously awaiting the go-ahead," said Ellenbogen. "There's a sense of urgency and frustration.

"I understand it's this way when you're dealing with federal and state governments," he added.

by CNB