Canal Park Trail Celebration

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – State and local dignitaries held a ribbon cutting today to celebrate the completion of the Canal Park Trail. 

The project was part of Ohio’s Appalachian Community Grant Program designed to improve public access to several of the state’s scenic and historic waterways.  

“Several years ago, Governor Mike DeWine and the General Assembly in the State of Ohio invested $500 Million Dollars into the Appalachian Region of Ohio,” Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik said. “Our communities got together around themes, where they wanted to do community development projects that would help… help grow these local communities. And Ironton-Lawrence County, their Community Action agency down in Southern Ohio, was really looking on, focusing on waterway projects.” 

Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization Assistant Director of Community Development Jessica Keeton explained how her organization became involved with the statewide initiative.

“So, initially when the Appalachian Community Grant Program came out, the Governor’s Office of Appalachia and the Ohio Department of Development had announced that they would really like to see regional projects,” Keeton said. “We thought, you know, our projects are river oriented, we knew a lot of our neighbors had river oriented projects and we thought, wouldn’t it be great to put together a regional project based around Ohio’s wonderful and mighty rivers.”

Ironton-Lawrence Community Action began collaborating with neighboring agencies and took the lead in coordinating the projects and administering the grant funds. Zanesville’s Canal Park Trail is one of 21 projects that was completed and will be co-managed through a collaboration between the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Muskingum Valley Park District.