TRAIL TREKKERS

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Participants in the Greenway Sojourn, top, leave the Pine Creek Rail Trail parking lot in Jersey Shore on Thursday. About 250 bicyclists from 23 states participated. At left, Jersey Shore Mayor Mark Lehman talks during the ceremony that kicked off the sojourn. The ceremony included the presentation of three checks that will pay for a proposed trail extension from the trailhead to the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

JERSEY SHORE - It is doubtful the county will ever see another check presentation ceremony like the one held here Thursday at the trail head parking lot of the Pine Creek Rail Trail.

Against a backdrop of about 250 bicyclists dressed in just about every color imaginable and hailing from 23 states, borough officials were given $832,000 - the full funding for a proposed 1.4-mile rail trail extension project that will connect the trail head along Railroad Street to the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and a proposed riverfront park.

The bicyclists were about to embark on the first leg of a three-day 125-mile round trip through the Pine Creek valley on the Pine Creek Rail Trail.

Sponsored by the Rails-to-Trail Conservancy and co-hosted by the borough and Lycoming County, the event was held to highlight the rail trail, as well as show how recreation can boost a local economy and be a tool for community revitalization.

According to Tom Sexton, director of the conservancy's northeast region, the sojourn is held in a different location each year as a way of highlighting those locations.

Borough officials said they were thrilled to receive the money, which included $427,000 from the state Department of Transportation, $355,000 from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and $50,000 from the Williamsport-Lycoming Community Foundation.

"We can do this project without using one dollar of local money," borough manager Jack Engle said.

"Any time you can do a project of this magnitude without using any taxpayer dollars, it's great," said Ken Williamson, president of borough council.

According to Mayor Mark Lehman, the extension will provide the Jersey Shore community with a safe access to the rail trail and an eventual connection with Williamsport and Lock Haven.

Lehman thanked the agencies that provided the funding for the project and also thanked the mayors who preceded him: his father Ralph Lehman, and Jack Wolfe, for their foresight in bringing the trailhead parking lot to Jersey Shore.

Ralph Lehman, Mark Lehman said, understood the vision behind the Pennsylvania Wilds initiative and 10 years ago urged borough council to bring the trail head parking lot to the borough.

When Wolfe succeeded Lehman, he "kept the vision going and, in early 2006, just as his term was over, this facility was complete," Mark Lehman said.

The borough has held the title "Gateway to the Pine Creek Valley' for many years and now could claim the title of the "southern gateway to the Pennsylvania Wilds," Lehman said.

"My vision of Jersey Shore is to have Jersey Shore become the beginning and the end to your adventure here on the beautiful Pine Creek Rail Trail," he told sojourners.

According to Suzanne Lee, executive director of the Williamsport-Lycoming Community Foundation, the foundation saw the trail extension as a worthy project because it provides local residents with a safe access to the rail trail that currently does not exist.

"The parking lot was a terrific beginning, but we wanted to be able to bring our own community members through Jersey Shore to the parking lot," Lee said. "Local residents have to either drive or unsafely ride (here). This was a local perspective saying, 'let's give our community members access to the trail.' "

Lee called the rail trail "a gem."

"It's beautiful. There are people who will have access to this," she said. "I believe they will take care of it and respect it."

According to county transportation planner Mark Murawski, work could begin on the extension next year.

Jerry S. Walls, former Lycoming County director of Planning and Community Development, said the long-term goal is to make the trail part of a 500-mile trail system that will allow hikers and bicyclists to travel all the way to the mouth of the Susquehanna River at the Chesapeake Bay.