ATHENS, Tenn. — Work has begun here on 2 miles of new 5-foot-wide sidewalks that will serve the public library, hospital, downtown and other areas.
Athens Public Works Director Shawn Lindsey said a grant of $416,411 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation will pay for the bulk of the work. The city’s match is 20 percent.
“We have saved for two years for our part,” Mr. Lindsey said. The city has been doing repairs but not adding to its sidewalk network in hopes of getting the grant, he said.
The new sidewalks will connect the E.G. Fisher Library and the city’s swimming pool and skate park to existing sidewalks leading to Tennessee Wesleyan College and the downtown area.
Another section will travel along Cook Drive and connect the downtown area and city hall to the Athens Regional Hospital. A third project will create safer walking areas around schools.
“This will connect current islands around the city,” Mr. Lindsey said.
The 5-foot width will accommodate all sorts of users, from walkers, bikers and rollerbladers to people in scooters and wheelchairs, at the same time, he said.
East Tennessee Construction Co. of Athens won the bid and started work last week, but late-week rains put the project on hold until this week.
Library assistant Carolyn Melton said the sidewalk will be a blessing for library patrons and workers.
“We have people in apartments in the area that come to the library nearly every day,” she said. Now, library users must walk either on busy Ingleside Avenue or in the fields around the library. People who need scooters or wheelchairs have no way to reach the building, she said.
City officials hope that building a sidewalk to the skate park near Ingleside Elementary School will encourage more skateboarders to use it rather than bring their boards downtown.
City officials recently passed a skateboard ordinance downtown that is being enforced by city police.
City Councilman Dick Pelley said Mr. Lindsey should be commended for getting the grant.
“One of the things that make a city different from the county are the sidewalks,” he said.
He said planning for the grant was wise with work held off for about two years to collect matching grant money. He said that allows the city to build far more walks that they could have without the grant.
Work should be completed later this summer.