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Madison County Bicycle Trail pioneer

Edwardsville resident George Arnold has done plenty to promote bicycle trails in Madison County, and he's received some long overdue credit for the work he's done. A local chapter of the AARP hailed George as the "founding father of bike trails" in the county and presented him with a hand-carved plaque earlier this week. You can read about this in an article written by a friend of mine, Norma Mendoza of the Edwardsville Intelligencer: http://snipurl.com/bgmw.

Twenty years ago, when I was a reporter for the Intelligencer, I remember how George and a small group of volunteers struggled to keep the Madison County Nature Trail open. At that time, Madison County government had control of the trail, but the county didn't have the money to maintain the trail properly. It often was overgrown by weeds, and bridge vandalism was a serious problem.

Since then, the Madison County Transit District has taken over the trail and has turned it into a wonderful paved trail linking Edwardsville and Granite City. It probably is the most used of Madison County trails because of its link to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and other bicycle trails and safe cycling roads in Madison County.

Thank you, George, for all you've done to promote cycling in Madison County!

Roger 0 comments 1:56 PM