McKean County Commissioners on Tuesday approved a recommendation from the Planning Commission to award $25,000 in Act 13 Greenways Funding to Kane Borough.
The borough will use the money for various improvements to a trail maintain Knox & Kane Rail Trail.
When contacted by The Era, Tom Kase, borough council president, responded as follows:
“The Act 13 grant will help us harden a parking area, add a kiosk and some signage, do some drainage work, build the trail from across from Country Fair over to the main Knox & Kane Rail Trail at Y Street to the east, and install some vegetative screening. This is a borough project. Eventually we hope to add a ‘Welcome Center’ on this site too. I envision it would be staffed at least part-time.”
Kase is also president of the Trail Association of the McKean/Elk Divide, which also maintains a portion of the Knox & Kane Trail Trail outside of the borough.
He went on to explain the location that is the current focus of group efforts.
“Our local trail group, TAMED, is working on the trail beyond the borough boundary. We are working on about a 20-mile stretch of the 74-mile trail, from Lantz Corners to the Russell City area. TAMED has a grant pending that would allow us to build from the east end of the borough out to the Kane Country Club, which is about three miles. Last May, we decked the bridge over an active railroad behind Kane High along the Highland Road.”
According to officials, this activity was funded by a grant from The Collins Companies Foundation, and built collaboratively with the Vo-Ag Students at Kane Area High School. The welding/fabrication students built steel brackets and the carpentry students built the substructure for the decking and railings. The bridge decking was completed during KARE for Kane 2019.
TAMED is holding a Trail Discovery event at 2 p.m. Sunday. The group plans to meet behind Kane High along the Highland Road and walk, bike, and/or ski, depending on the trail conditions. Children can be pulled in sleds if there is snow.
The outing will take a southwesterly direction, heading toward Lamont for a mile or two and then doubling back. This will provide those in attendance a chance to get out on the trail to discover what it has to offer. This also provides an opportunity for those interested to see how they can help develop the trail.
Regular meetings for TAMED are held at 7 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month at Logyard Brewing. New members are always welcome.
