Newport received the National Park Service River Trails Conservation Assistance Grant to get assistance with planning the parks along the riverfront and getting community involvement.
The city and community development nonprofit ReNewport applied for the grant. The grant will allow for a community planning process for the area between the cellular floodwall in the south, up to the confluence of Ohio and Licking Rivers to Purple People Bridge, including General James Taylor Park.
“It was a grant that was in concert with ReNewport, who did all the work on the application, which I’m grateful for,” Newport Manager Tom Fromme said. “Josh Tunning (ReNewport Executive Director), Jen Scheper, and some members of the rowing club/kayak group (Cincinnati Rowing Club) were instrumental in this as well.”
Scheper is a Newport resident and helped spearhead the effort.
“I moved here to Newport about six years ago,” Scheper said. “I love outdoor recreation. I came to this city because of the sense of community that is here. I moved here from Indiana; everybody knows each other; I felt that here, too. Also, because it’s an urban area and we have some outdoor recreation opportunities through pedestrian and bike paths, the Ohio River, the Licking River. We’ve got so many parks, and we can continue growing those.”
Newport Commissioner Ken Rechtin said Scheper approached him about renting kayak storage on the Ohio River so that residents wouldn’t have to store and lug their kayaks whenever they wanted to get on the water.
Scheper started attending conferences where she met someone involved in the National Park Service and learned about the grant.
“They will help assist and get the community involved,” Scheper said. “We have a chance here to cover all of the riverfront. So, if we can, I think it would be really valuable to do that. It’s a great opportunity, and it’s something positive to put out there.”
Though the grant will help with planning assistance, it does not mean the city is receiving money.
“They will help organize and help us find the constituents base, those people that will eventually help you find folks that will be actively involved in funding and utilizing the system as well,” Rechtin said. “The city and ReNewport applied together for this in March, and then we were made aware of it just recently.”
When applying for the grant, they were charged with finding folks who would write letters of support. Letters of support came from people like Managing Director Corporex Companies Tom Banta and Alan Bernstein with BB Riverboats.
Rechtin said he thought the letters of support were what helped drive the grant home for them.
People who Rechtin said they would like to be involved in the planning process include all property owners affected, such as North American Properties, who own Newport on the Levee, the Newport Aquarium, Chairman and CEO Corporex Companies Bill Butler, and those who wrote letters of support.
Rechtin said the West Side Citizens Coalition, Newport Parks Renaissance Commission, and Newport Recreation Commission should also be involved.
“It’s really important to make sure that this is a community-driven process so that we can keep going in the right direction,” Rechtin said.
Rechtin said he has advocated for opening access through the flood wall under the Fourth Street Bridge, which would be a reason to get the West Side Citizens Coalition involved. He said this would be an at-grade ability to walk from the west side of Newport into the park, making it accessible so folks don’t have to go over the flood wall.
“We’re going to have to have involvement from the Army Corps of Engineers and here’s what really is helpful is if the National Park Service is involved in the planning process it helps grease the wheels of the Army Corp of Engineers,” he said.
Opening access through the flood wall would also give the city access to an area of underutilized space that Rechtin said could be used for activities.
Funders would also be invited to the table to help the effort. The 7.5 million from the state’s budget for General James Taylor Park would also be tied into this planning process. Rechtin said that any previous plans for ongoing projects, like General James Taylor Park, will be considered in the planning process.
The official planning cycle begins on Oct. 1, but Rechtin said they could start as early as June or July.
