A trail runs through it — well, not yet.
Funding to complete the eight-mile Parleys Trail from the mouth of Parleys Canyon west to the Jordan River Parkway Trail — about $10 million — evaporated with a recent vote of the Salt Lake County Council.
That has halted work on the trail in Sugar House Park, said trail project manager Walt Gilmore, who also is a county parks planner.
The council’s Republican majority, in a 5-3 vote along partisan lines, determined not to put Democratic Mayor Peter Corroon’s $123 million parks bond before voters in November. If approved, it would have cost the average household $14 a year to spruce up existing parks, build new ones, as well as complete the Parleys and Jordan River trails in Salt Lake County.
About 30 trees already have been taken out near 1700 East, where crews built a berm to mitigate a steep bank into the park. But the remaining 33 trees slated for removal will be left standing, Jensen said, until funding for the Sugar House Park segment is assured.
It is possible that bond financing may still be an option, Corroon said this week. He will leave office at year’s end, but said he may bring back to the council in coming weeks a smaller parks bond proposal. Salt
Lake Tribune
