March 21, 2018
Greening North St. Louis County
Around Town Community Voices By Jessica Denham. Pg. 2 Hazelwood offers Easter egg hunts for adults and kids. Pg.3
Special Section
The Golden Years. P.4
Features Image courtesy Great Rivers Greenway This rendering shows a completed underpass under Lewis and Clark Blvd. that will allow for easier pedestrian connection as part of the Maline Greenway.
Construction for Maline Greenway began March 13 and when completed it will cover seven miles and link seven municipalities By Charlotte Beard Great Rivers Greenway has begun another project to help improve the quality of life for communities in St. Louis. Construction for Maline Greenway in North St. Louis County began March 13. When Maline is completed it will cover seven miles. The greenway construction will take place in stages, with this first 1.5 miles beginning in Bella Fontaine County Park in Bellefontaine Neighbors with tree removal along the planned trail corridor. This phase of the project, in partnership with St. Louis County Parks Department, costs $2.6 million and will take approximately 12 months to complete. The plan for this construction is to create an efficient connection between both sides of the park, making it easier for people of all ages and abilities to connect to transit on Lewis and Clark Blvd. The construction project for the park will include ADA accessible walking and biking paths. Seth Treptow, Communications Manager for Great Rivers Greenway,
addressed the importance of accommodating portions of the community who use wheelchairs, as well as those who do not. “Some of those things [to look] at are the degree of slope the trail can have, how wide the trail is, the distance between the trail and any amenities such as signs or water fountains – having access around certain things. So, everything we look at we try to make sure we’re building at a grade and degree of incline that anyone can use no matter what their age or ability could be,” Treptow said. Additional improvements to the park include a new rain garden and the restoration of the Maline Creek stream bank to better manage storm water and prevent erosion. Construction has been coordinated with Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District to coincide with planned improvements to the waste and storm water infrastructure in the area. Treptow provided more insight for the rain garden. “A rain garden is a method of storm water
management. When you have pervious surfaces like trails, parking lots or highways, water doesn’t absorb on those surfaces—it kind of cascades off. That can create a real problem when you’re looking at creeks and streams because they can get overwhelmed very quickly in heavy rain. By reducing the amount of volume coming through the system we also reduce any amount of erosion in our creeks and streams,” Treptow said. The rain garden is also beneficial to vegetation. “These plants are specifically acclimated to our region’s climate. In our winters they thrive, in our summers they thrive, they thrive in drought, they thrive in a flood. So, by adding these to the rain garden, with their very deep root systems, they can filter. They will absorb that rain water as it comes through. The water they use helps keep them sustained and the water released from the [rain garden] is then See ‘GREENING’ page 2
Serving North & Northwest St. Louis County | FREE Online at mycnews.com | Vol. 97 No. 12 | 636-379-1775
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Weather FRIDAY Chance of Rain and Storms 60/48 SATURDAY Partly Sunny/ Showers 65/41 SUNDAY Partly Sunny 55/40 FirstWarn Weather
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