By BOBBIE GREEN
The Progress
The grand opening of the upgraded City of Mesquite Trail System was celebrated Tuesday morning, June 9, with a ceremonial ribbon cutting at the newly landscaped trailhead directly across the street from the Mesquite Rec Center.
This community project had its beginnings in 2015 at meetings held by the Eureka Resort. The meeting included city leaders and local residents to discuss and share ideas on what types of recreational and beautification efforts they wanted to see happen in the community.
The city project was a local effort with funding from the Redevelopment Agency, The Mesquite Opportunity Regional Fund (MORF) and help from the Public Works Department, Athletics & Leisure Services, The Mesquite Rotary Club, the Eureka Resort and residents input.
The Tuesday event saw small crowd in attendance. Speakers included Mesquite Mayor Al Litman; Nic Montoya, Director of Athletics & Leisure Services; Keith Buchhalter, Rotarian and Public Relations officer for OPD5; George Gault Mesquite City Councilman and member of the MORF. All conveyed the theme of working together and how they see that good ideas for the City are being realized slowly but consistently.
“The beautiful new upgraded trail proves that Mesquite is not standing still in offering the finest of outdoor amenities for everyone’s use,” Litman said. “Through the hard work of MORF and the generosity of Star Nursery, and all the volunteers and others, what was just an idea a few years ago has now become reality.”
Montoya shared that Mesquite has 58 miles of trails for biking, skating and pedestrians. The vision is to create all desert trails interconnecting with a human built environment of parks and off-street trails and recreational open spaces.
This Town Wash Trail was upgraded and beautified with 70 trees and 500 plants donated at cost by Star Nursery. The Rotary Club of Mesquite donated a number of “Buddy Benches” placed along the trails.
“When everyone works together, great things happen,” Buchhalter said. “This trail system is proof of this community working together.”
Gault said he is hoping to work with the newly appointed Mesquite Public Art Commission to acquire local sculptures and other cultural landmarks which can be place along the trails to beautify the area.
“I like the idea of Place Making, use what you have and improve upon it,” Gault said.
