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DINWIDDIE — A group dedicated to creating a trail network along the Appomattox River announced Tuesday it has received a $1 million grant from the Petersburg-based Cameron Foundation to develop the trail’s western end and eventually link it with Chesterfield County by a hike-and-bike bridge over the river.
The grant, the first seven-figure donation to the Friends of the Lower Appomattox River, will also be used in part to develop Ferndale Appomattox Riverside Park in Dinwiddie County just across the river from Matoaca in Chesterfield. FOLAR and the Cameron Foundation held a brief ceremony Tuesday morning alongside a canal that was first developed in the 18th century to establish navigation between Petersburg and the town of Farmville 65 miles to the west.
“The Cameron Foundation has been a longtime supporter and investor in FOLAR, and I can personally say we would not be the strong organization we are today and able to do as much for the community that we do right now without their partnership,” FOLAR executive director Wendy Austin said at the ceremony.
The Cameron partnership with FOLAR is an example of the foundation’s initiative “to address the social detriments of health,” Cameron president Tidd Graham said.
“We have an interest in addressing those factors that impact the health of the region,” Graham said. “And one of those factors is access to outdoor recreational opportunities for exercise.”
Graham said Tuesday’s grant brings the total of foundation support for FOLAR to $1.5 million.
FOLAR estimates the total cost of linking the 25-mile trail that will criss-cross Petersburg into Hopewell to be about $10 million. It’s one of several hiking and biking trails in a central Virginia network that includes the 55-mile Capital Trail between Richmond and Williamsburg, and the soon-to-be-started Fall Line Trail that will run north-south more than 40 miles between Ashland in Hanover County and Petersburg. The Fall Line Trail is expected to link with the Appomattox Trail.
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“This award is a very positive start toward funding the $10 million total cost to complete the project.” said FOLAR board chairman Sam Hayes. Before he retired from the Virginia Department of Transportation, Hayes was one of the people overseeing the development of the Capital Trail.
Following the ceremony, guests were given a motorized tour of the tow line that was originally used to dredge the Ferndale Park canal. They were taken to a spot near the Brasfield Dam on Lake Chesdin where the approximately 1,000-foot pedestrian and bicycle bridge will cross the Appomattox between Chesterfield and Dinwiddie.
Work on that bridge is expected to be completed within the next couple of years, FOLAR said. Chesterfield County plans to beautify the spot where the bridge will come into the John J. Radcliffe Conservation Area.
From the bridge, the trail will travel alongside the river for about five miles into Petersburg’s Old Towne district. When completed, it will provide 25 miles of hiking and biking opportunities linking Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Petersburg, Colonial Heights, Hopewell and Prince George County.
Portions of the Appomattox River Trail in Hopewell have already been completed.
FOLAR said $250,000 of the $1 million Cameron gift will be used to help match a $500,000 challenge grant it is supposed to get from the Richmond-based Cabell Foundation. The grant will only be awarded if FOLAR is successful in matching Cabell’s donation, and the organization said in a news release it was “now more than halfway to achieving that goal and will need to raise the other half in the coming year through individual community support.”
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Veteran journalist Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is the regional daily news coach for the USA TODAY Network Southeast Region’s Unified Central group, which includes Virginia, West Virginia and portions of North Carolina. He is based at The Progress-Index in Petersburg, Virginia. Contact Bill at batkinson@progress-index.com, and follow him on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.
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Read More:River advocacy group gets $1 million for trail-network project