A bike path that connects to Willowdale and winds around the future sight of Rathborne Park is substantially complete and residents are already starting to take notice.
The park site is located south of Lakewood Ridge Estates at the end of Lakewood Drive in Luling. The 8-foot-wide path circles the 12-acre perimeter of the park with a connecting segment in the middle as well as a connection to Beaupre Drive to allow residents of Willowdale access to the area.
“The path is wonderful,” Grants Officer Holly Fonseca, who applied for the funding for the park project, said. “I went out there recently and there were several people already using the path, including walkers, joggers and bike riders.”
Fonseca said kids are taking advantage of the path to get from one neighborhood to the other.
“They used to have to go on busy West Heather Street in front of the schools (Lakewood Elementary School) to get to each neighborhood, but this way is safer,” she said.
Construction on the inside portion of the park hasn’t begun yet, but the final design is almost complete. Once it is completed, the parish will send the design to the state Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, to obtain clearance to advertise for bids.
The first phase of the park will include a ball field, two pavilions, benches, picnic tables, playground equipment and a parking lot.
A basketball court, fitness stations and a sidewalk path connecting the ball field to the parking lot could also be included in the first phase depending on the bids.
“We need to stay right at $300,000,” Fonseca said.
In 2008, the parish submitted a funding application for the park, but the application finished sixth out of 19 applications and only the top four received funding. The parish submitted another application in April 2009 and qualified for the grant earlier this year.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund will provide funding of up to $150,000 per phase of development of the park. The parish will have to match the $150,000, and Parish President V.J. St. Pierre said they will do so using development fees from the area subdivisions.
Civil Construction submitted a low bid of $557,665 for construction of the walk/bike path, and $90,385 was funded through a Louisiana Recreation Trails grant awarded to the parish last year. The parish also used $118,500 from subdivision development fees to help pay for the trail.
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