North Huntingdon group proposes recreational trails connecting Trafford and Yough River

A recreational trails group in North Huntingdon wants to develop a route to connect the Westmoreland Heritage Trail to the Great Allegheny Passage.

Robert Morgan and Daniel Korhnak, two of the four founders of the Friends of Norwin Trails, presented an outline to the North Huntingdon commissioners for creating a series of recreational paths in the municipality.

The men received apprvoal for a letter of support from the township commissioners that they could use to gather input from property owners whose land would be needed for rights of way for the proposed trails.

“We’re asking for a blessing (from the township) to move in the right direction. This would be a really good thing for the community,” Morgan said.

With the letter of support, the group will visit property owners to gauge interest in trail development.

The commissioners approved providing a letter of support Wednesday for the trail group. Harry Faulk, township manager, said the township could draft a letter supporting the endeavor.

“It gives them some credibility” when talking to property owners along a proposed trail and to funding organizations, Faulk said prior to the vote.

While the exact routes have yet to be determined, Morgan and Korhnak, both members of North Huntingdon’s recreation advisory board, said they want to see a trail connecting Irwin with the Westmoreland Heritage Trail at Trafford using a Trolley Line trail that would run through Larimer and Ardara and onto Trafford, paralleling Route 993. The first leg would go from Irwin to Larimer, Korhnak said.

“We’re trying to move cautiously,” Kohrnak said.

Connecting to the Westmoreland Heritage Trail would give users 9 miles of trails from Trafford to Export and 8½ miles from Delmont to the Saltsburg. A middle section yet to be built, would tunnel under Route 66 north of Delmont, said Rob Cronauer, vice president of the Westmoreland Heritage Trail board of directors.

They also proposed developing a trail along the defunct Youghiogheny Railroad, a coal-hauling route that traveled from Irwin, through Hahntown and Rillton to the Youghiogheny River at Gratztown, a small village in Sewickley Township between West Newton and Sutersville. That trail could connect to the Great Allegheny Passage for users traveling north to Sutersville or south to West Newton and taking bridges to cross the Youghiogheny River to connect with the Great Allegheny Passage.

The proposed Youghiogheny Railroad trail is an “inspiration” that might not pan out now, Korhnak said.

A third trail could be a spoke to the township’s public works property off Route 30, following Clifton Drive to Larmier, where it would connect with the Trolley Line trail, Kohrnak said. The township’s Hilltop Park could be the site for mountain bike trails.

Daniel Miller, North Huntingdon’s parks and recreation director, said the support empowers the volunteers’ efforts for creating trails.

The township’s long-range plan was developed about seven years ago and included the creation of trails, but that was for trails within North Huntingdon’s existing parks, Miller said.

Morgan and Kohrnak said they also want to have the creation of recreational trails included in the comprehensive plan the township is developing.

Kohrnak said they want to speak with the Irwin Borough Recreation Board about the plans, as well as a representative from North Irwin.

“We want to work with all three communities,” Morgan said, referring to the municipalities in the Norwin School District.

Previous attempts

The new Friends of the Norwin Trails, formed late last year, is not the first organization to propose a recreational trail system in the township, said Bob Cupp of North Huntingdon, a member of the Norwin Historical Society.

Many years ago, an effort was made to follow the path of the old Youghiogheny Railroad, built by the Penn Gas Co. that owned coal mines in the Hahntown area, Cupp said. That railroad connected to the Pennsylvania Railroad in Irwin and went south through Hahnown, Rillton, Lowber and to Gratztown in Sewickley Township, where it met the Pittsburgh & Connellsville Railroad at the Youghiogheny River, according to the 1876 Historical Atlas of Westmoreland County.

Cupp recalled that one group pushing recreational trails had proposed that a bridge be built across the Youghiogheny River by the Turner Valley athletic fields, but that ambitious plan never materialized.

The challenge in undertaking such a project is that the group needs to have landowners willing to relinquish a right of way for a price, before they even seek funding, said Cronauer.

If the property owners are willing to sell land for a bike path, then the group has the challenge of finding money to build a trail, Cronauer said. Grants from agencies such as the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources typically require some type of matching funds.

“You can’t do a thing without willing and able landowners,” Cronauer said.