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F gym The trail's remaining one-third will wind through some woods Gha' pel between Daley Road and Booker Creek Road. It promises to be the go most scenic portion" of the green- vote iv way because the trees will hide the sewer easement, Horton said. The path will be 10 feet wide, and Way its paving will make it suitable for gre an use by pedestrians, bicyclists, skaters and wheelchair users . light Chapel Hill's only comparable facil- 9ee In ity is the Bolin Creek Greenway, which runs from Airport Road to East Franklin Street . Council members did little to tin- , By RAY GRONBERG ker with the project, save to urge gronberg@herald-sun. com; 9184032 Horton to economize by forgoing some landscaping costs at the new CHAPEL HILL — A new green- path's trailhead . way connecting several northeast- . Mayor Rosemary Waldorf and ern Chapel Hill neighborhoods to Councilman Bill Strom were not the Eastgate area could be open for present for the approval vote.. the beginning of 2001, thanks to a Last Nlonday's meeting also saw recent Tblivn Council vote, the council give Horton permission Members gave the town's Parks to start scouting for property to buy and Recreation Department the with the $2. 6 million that remains green light to start building the sec- ond phase of the Lower Booker l from a $3 million open-space bond Creek Trail, at an estimated cost of I . that voters approved in 1996. $4521000. The only money the town has The project will add 4,300 feet — spent from the bond issue bought a eight-tenths of a mile — of concrete six, -acre lot along Cleland Drive, the trail to Chapel Hill's greenway net- . please see GREENWAY/PAGE 2 work. It will stretch from . booker Creek Road to East Franklin Street. The council backed the effort on a TO vote last Monday, after a short pitch from Mark Broadwell, chair- man of Chapel Hill 's Greenways RE NWAY Commission. He called the pro- posed trail "a vital link" in the FROM PAGE 1 town's burgeoning trail network. I Last Monday's vote gave Town Manager Cal Horton permission to site of the town 's prospective hire a Charlotte contractor, R&G southern fire station , and part Construction Co. , to build the new of the Lower Booker Creek trail. The firm offered to do the job Trail . for $373,423, well below the bid of Horton told the council he two competitors. wants to secure help for the Horton plans to hold the remain- scouting effort from an der of the project budget in reserve open - space planner em - for soil testing, legal bills and cost ployed by Orange County overruns , and from a real - estate pro - Given that prior trail projects ran f e s s i o n a l . into trouble with "poor soils and other conditions" that added costs, it made sense to set aside a large reserve for the Lower Booker Creek Trail, Horton said. About two-thirds of the trail will parallel an Orange Water and Sewer Authority sewer line visible to motorists and pedestrians along East Franklin Street as they pass Eastgate on their way toward Durham. The location exposes the new trail to flooding from Booker Creek, which led to the decision to pave it with concrete. Horton said concrete would offer more resistance to floodwaters .