CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail received a timely chunk of support last week from the Clean Ohio Trails Fund in the form of a $500,000 grant for Stage 1 of the five-mile, $56.5 million project.

The latest grant would help complete the short, but problematic section of trail between Harvard Avenue and Steelyard Commons by late 2019. The section runs from the north end of the Cleveland Metroparks Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation at Harvard Avenue around the edge of the former Harshaw Chemical plant.

One rung at a time

"We just keep climbing the ladder, one rung at a time," Tim Donovan, executive director of Canalway Partners, said Monday. "We're not done with our match funding, but it was a good win for us."

A $5 million grant for Stage 1, previously made by the federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program through the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, requires local matching funds, Donovan said.

The Clean Ohio grant brings the remaining amount needed to complete the local matching amount for Stage 1 to $750,000, he said.

"That's well within reach," he said. "We feel good about that."

Canalway Partners and collaborating agencies have raised $53 million, or nearly 95 percent of the total required to complete the four stages of Cleveland portion of the Towpath by 2020. The Partners include Cuyahoga County, the City of Cleveland and Cleveland Metroparks

Cuyahoga County was the applicant for the $500,000 grant from Clean Ohio.

Reclaiming history

The Towpath, a regional project aimed at reclaiming and revitalizing landscapes along the route of the 1832 Ohio & Erie Canal, will extend 101 consecutive miles from Cleveland south through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Akron, Massillon, Canal Fulton, Bolivar and points beyond.

The sections in Cleveland are among the last to be completed in the project, which has been in the works for more than two decades.

The Harshaw plant produced enriched uranium for the U.S. military from 1944 to 1953, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has ordered a cleanup by BASF, the current owner.

Bob Nelson, BASF senior manager for communications and community relations, said in an email Monday evening that the company "is working with the U.S. EPA and other local and national stakeholders to clean up the former Harshaw Chemical site on Harvard Ave.

"BASF inherited the site in 2006 as part of a larger acquisition, but has never manufactured on the property," Nelson added.

Earlier version of Stage 1

An early version of the trail right-of-way would have required building an elevated section passing underneath the Harvard Denison Bridge, skirting the north side of the Harshaw property. That proposal proved to be prohibitively expensive, Donovan said.

The four partnering agencies leading the Towpath project recently found it was possible under federal funding rules to build the trail along Harvard Avenue and Jennings Road to reach Steelyard Commons.

Stage 2 of the trail was completed in 2009. Stage 3 from Steelyard north into Tremont is under construction.

Portions of Stage 4, which will reach from Scranton Road Peninsula to Canal Basin Park on the Columbus Road Peninsula, also await completion. Some $2.25 million needs to be raised to finish those gaps, Donovan said.