Berkshire Schools BOE OKs $76K for Trails to Ledge Park
Berkshire Schools Board of Education passed a resolution July 11 to release $76,000 of the Frances Spatz Leighton Trust fund to help Thompson Township Trustees improve public access to Ledge Park in Thompson Township.
Berkshire Schools Board of Education passed a resolution July 11 to release $76,000 of the Frances Spatz Leighton Trust fund to help Thompson Township Trustees improve public access to Ledge Park in Thompson Township.
Trustees plan to spend $31,000 of the fund to create a connector hiking trail from behind the new library on Madison Road to the part of Ledge Park that is north of Thompson Road, said Thompson Township Trustee Erwin Leffel Monday after the meeting.
The $45,000 will be spent to clear land and build a driveway off Madison Road south of Thompson Square to the southern part of Ledge Park, he said.
Leffel said Chris Hyatt, owner of Hemley Hardware on Thompson Road, has been asked to grant an easement along the north side of his property for the trail from the library to the park.
The northern section of Ledge Park is landlocked and paths through it are unimproved, he said.
The park on the south side of the road is open to visitors and Lake Erie College brings classes there, he said.
The Frances Spatz Leighton Trust was established to benefit Ledgemont Schools children in Montville and Thompson townships. When a territory transfer took place in 2015, Berkshire Schools became responsible for the trust. The condition for using the funds for the children of the two townships remains and the township trustees passed resolutions in November 2021 and last May to request $76,000 for the two projects.
“It’s great to see the money being used,” said Berkshire Schools Treasurer Beth McCaffrey.
The last piece of the puzzle will be for the Ledge Park Commission to approve the access projects, Leffel said.
He said his late wife, Lynne Leffel, had the idea for connecting the library property to Ledge Park some years before she died in 2019.
It is a vision she shared with commission member Mike Kuehn, Leffel said.
Geauga Park District has proposed building a trailhead with a parking lot on the old school site next to the library and creating a boardwalk, but that project is not scheduled for three to five years, Leffel said.
While he is still working to fulfill Lynne’s dream, Leffel said he has slowed down his drive to see it done immediately.
“If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,” he said over the phone.
