Another Push for Push for the Path

A Kennedy Road bike trail supporter has taken her cause to YouTube, posting a video this week encouraging people to attend Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Rachel Engelhardt had followed the bike trail issue through the failed referendum and through public discussions of creating a non-profit called Push for the Path. She finally got involved when it appeared aldermen were going to reject a $1.4 million grant over concerns about funding the city’s 20 percent share of the project.

“I’ve been sitting at home thinking I’ll make a contribution, all I need to know is where to write a check and where to send it to,” Engelhardt said. “(Then) I started having a panic moment: ‘Oh we’re going to let this go.’”

So, she called Lynn Dubajic, executive director of the Yorkville Economic Development Corporation and one of the three founders of a private fundraising effort. Push for the Path is willing to raise the city’s $357,320 cost over six years, but city leaders have asked for the money upfront so a potential fundraising shortfall doesn’t hurt the city’s budget.

The issue will be considered at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, which starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

The 2.72 miles of trail would run along Kennedy Road from Route 47 to Mill Road, which is just south of Galena Road. There is a sidewalk along a portion of that section of Kennedy Road. The sidewalk sits on the south side of Kennedy Road from Route 47 to near Christy Lane.

“Ultimately, the Kennedy Road trail would connect Yorkville to the Fox River Trail (total 46.2 miles), the Virgil Gilman Trail (17.2 miles) and the Illinois Prairie Path (61 miles) in addition to a number of shorter area trail systems,” Laura Schraw, Yorkville’s interim director of Parks and Recreation, wrote in a Nov. 4 memo.

The city’s payments for the project would be spread out over several years, leaving some aldermen worried that taxpayers could be stuck footing the bill if the private fundraising effort peters or collapses. Members of the City Council’s Public Works Committee had urged Push for the Path supporters to raise the money by Aug. 1, which is when city leaders need to let state officials know if they will accept the grant.

The issue will be before aldermen much earlier, though, because Push for the Path representatives have said they need the city to sign off on the project before collecting donations and forming a non-profit organization.

“They are kind of in the chicken or the egg situation with the fundraising,” City Administrator Bart Olson said. “… I think push is going to come to shove, and we’re going to have to give them an up or down vote either way.”