Grant will help fund extension of Gayle’s Trails

PANAMA CITY BEACH — A contract has been executed to extend Gayle’s Trails for a short but critical segment of what will eventually become a 30-mile multi-use trail named in honor of the mayor.

With nine miles of “Gayle’s Trails” already paved, city officials have been seeking grants to allow for expansion of the system.

And they’ve secured $75,000 in federal funds for this latest project, with the city agreeing to fund $139,737 in matching funds.

The funding will be used for the construction of the Trieste Multi-Use Trail East, located near Moonlight Bay Drive. This project extends Gayle’s Trails for 512 linear feet along a 12-foot wide asphalt trail, and includes a 600-linear-foot trail bridge, installation of trail signage and 756 linear feet of fencing and related support facilities.

Gayle’s Trails is designated part of the Florida Greenways and Trails system and is a National Recreation Trail.

This extension, although a short distance, was critical to the overall trail project because the trail could have stopped dead in its tracks at Moonlight Bay Drive at the gated Trieste community, Mayor Gayle Oberst said. Instead, the developer agreed to allow the trail to continue on, she said.

“We called the developer and met with him, and he said, ‘Look I’d never do anything like (stop the trail). The trail is too important to Panama City Beach.’ I’ll give you an easement through my community, and that will be in all of the covenants,’ “ Oberst said. “(The city) promised to do everything we could do to keep people out of other folk’s yards with special landscaping.”

She said this extension is not going very far because of the significant costs of going over wetlands.

“We’re going to have to build boardwalks, one or two in this segment, and that cost more money,” she said.

Oberst said the critical phase of the trail that needs to be completed is from the Trieste community down to J.R. Arnold High School.

“We’ll do that,” she said. “We have to wait until we get the money or figure out how to get the money. But there are three landowners we need to go through.”

She said city attorneys several years ago sent letters to those developers stating that they need to disclose to potential home buyers that a trail is going through there.

Once the overall Gayle’s Trails project is completed, the network will meet up with Walton County’s trails to the west, stretch north to Pine Log State Forest via State 79 and run through the neighborhoods north of Back Beach Road to the Hathaway Bridge.

Phil Chester, an avid runner who lives in Colony Club near the latest extension, said he’s elated the trail system is being developed.

“I think it would be good for citizens of Panama City Beach,” he said. ‘We need some things for the citizens here, not just our tourists. But our tourists will use this. This is a huge asset for the citizens here.”

The Recreational Trails Program that is helping fund the extension provides competitive-grant funds to local communities to renovate, develop or maintain recreational trails and trailside facilities. Contract agreements are for two years, with two possible one-year extensions.

The Recreational Trails Program is a federally funded assistance program of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. A portion of the grant awards must be matched by the grantee. In Florida, the competitive-grant program is administered by the Department of Environmental Protection’s Land and Recreation Grants section.

Rick Mercer, the director of operations for the Department of Environmental Protection, said he expects this latest project to be completed in 15 months.

"It is ultimately going to be a system of trails,” he said. “(Gayle’s Trails) is a very well-planned system of connected trails. This is just one of the gaps we’re closing in that overall trail system.’