Paved trail linking Greenway with Memory Hill “hopefully” will open this summer

It's a beaten path being built off of a larger beaten path, and most people around Milledgeville don't even know that it's happening.

Nevertheless, work continues on a new paved trail system that will link the Oconee Rivery Greenway to the area around Flagg Chapel Baptist Church and Memory Hill Cemetery. The path already has been marked off and cleared. Essentially, all that remains at this point is the paving and the installation of a pedestrian bridge. The path will be designed for walkers, joggers, cyclists and anyone else on non-motorized vehicles, just like the current setup at the Greenway.

"You get on the trail and you almost forget that you're in town," Milledgeville City Manager Hank Griffeth told Baldwin2k News. "Of course, you can hear some traffic occasionally if you're walking under one of the bridges, but's it will truly be a great natural respite through town."

Beginning around Memory Hill and Flagg Chapel, trail users will traverse down a hill before meeting up with Fishing Creek, begin heading east under the three south side bridges – first Wilkinson, then Wayne and then Elbert – cross behind the Georgia Military College baseball/softball complex and eventually meet up with the existing Greenway trail system. 

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June 30 is the hopeful/tentative target date for completion, according to Griffeth.

The project is becoming a reality thanks to a $1 million federal government transportation grant, as well as a $90,000 grant from the Knight Foundation. The total project currently has a projected final cost of $1.34 million.