To continue on the bad economic news front, we learned today that Oakland County Parks will not be hiring a replacement for the Trails Network Coordinator position — at least not right now.

Melissa Prowse, the former coordinator has transitioned into a parks planning position.  The intent was to hire a replacement.  The Oakland County Parks Commission decided not to at this time “given recent economic uncertainty and the current status of our structural reorganization.”

Jon Noyes, Oakland County Parks Planning Supervisor says they’ll ensure staff can continue to support the Oakland Trails Advisory Council (OTAC).  That’s great news.

There is a hope that the coordinator position could be re-posted in fiscal 2010 (October 2009.)

Until then, we’ll have to make do with less just as everyone else is right now.

The Detroit News ran an article a couple weeks ago about Oakland County Parks completing a Trails Master Plan:

It’s always been a vision in Oakland County: a continuous, linked outdoor trail system that connects communities, downtowns and schools.

But gaps in the system — much of it built on top of old railroad lines — continue.

Bridging those gaps is a major focus of Oakland County’s first Trails Master Plan developed and released by county parks officials last month.

The Trails Master Plan is a beautiful and very professional document.  Electronic copies are available from the Oakland County web site.

And speaking of the Oakland County web site, it has been updated.  If you haven’t checked out their trails web page lately, you should.

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that a group of us were called together by Oakland County Parks in the late 90s.  While they had traditionally limited their involvement to fenced parks, they did note the momentum of trail development across the county.  Our group pushed them in that direction.  They’ve come a long way since then, which is great news for anyone who rides a horse, a bike, or simply walks.

Link: Oakland works to link trails, Detroit News

Oakland County Parks is in the final stages of developing a Strategic Master Plan.

It is expected that this Plan will be approved by the Parks Commission in May. The Strategic Master Plan Summary Report should be posted on parks website sometime after May 7th.

On Wednesday I attended the public forum, which included a brief overview of the Plan and a chance for feedback. I was impressed with the Plan’s thoroughness.

The main concern brought up by three of us was this is great but when is the Road Commission of Oakland County going to make the roads safer to bike on? We want it to be easier and safer to ride to Oakland County Parks rather than rely on motor vehicles.

In fact I happened to ride to the meeting out in Waterford and was forced to use some unsafe county roads to get there. I had no choice — a point I raised at the meeting.

To their credit Oakland County Parks did meet earlier this year with the Road Commission to discuss trails and on-road bike facilities. It’s a start, but more needs to be done.