NEWBERRY, S.C. — Community organizations from across the state gathered in Newberry for a two-day bike-trail summit.
“We've come to learn best practices on greenway designs, trail designs, public health components, working with researchers," SC Trails Coalition Advisory Board member Jason Eurroz. "Research has shown resources do work."
They partnered with Palmetto Cycling Coalition to host the summit.
The goal is to bring leaders together to find new ways to make communities in the state more bike and walking-friendly, as well as find ways to make it happen.
“Having healthy citizens and having people wanting to live in your community because they have access to great outdoor recreation amenities or even bringing tourism allows you to bring in tourism and economic dollars to those who want to visit those communities to ride those resources or hike those trails,” Eurroz said.
The conference also opened the door for towns to learn about funding options to build more trails.
“There is a lot of funding available for biking and walking through various different pots, whether that's through transportation, through community development projects, through economic development, through health and wellness and you can look at these different sources and see what funding best services your community,” adds Chuck Flink with Greenways Inc.
It’s something Newberry Mayor Foster Senn is interested in for his community. “We’ve heard a lot of ideas we would like to try in Newberry, I think we can try one idea at a time, you know their are a lot of different opportunities."