Newest section of Towpath Trail set to open July 7th

The Scranton Spoon. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer

(Gus Chan)

The Scranton Flats/Towpath Trail pier has a name.



The signature structure in a new $9.1 million park and trail development unveiled in a 1 p.m. ribbon cutting Monday on the Scranton Peninsula in Cleveland's Flats looks kind of like a banjo, or a lollipop, or an exclamation point. Each was a finalist in a vote conducted by Canalway Partners, which took the lead in developing the project, which adds about eight-tenths of a mile to the Towpath Trail that stretches to Tuscarawas County.



The finalists, as we told you here, were: "The Banjo," "The Silver Spoon," "The Lollipop," "The Scranton Spoon" and "The Exclamation Point."





"It's the Scranton Spoon," said Canalway Partners Executive Director Tim Donovan Monday as he prepared for the 1 p.m. ribbon cutting. "Voters chose it two-to-one over 'The Banjo.'"





There goes Tipoff reader Rick Warger's big idea. After reading about the effort to name the iconic pier, Warger suggested "Banjo Walk in the Flats."





"How about inviting Grammy-winning banjo player Steve Martin to cut the ribbon at the grand opening and play a tune or two? We would then have everything: a new river structure, music and, I would hope, some comedy," he wrote.





Lois Katovsky of Shaker Heights, who won a contest in the 1970s with "Give Cleveland a Faith Lift" (Hey, it's better than "Cleveland's a Plum"), went with pier puns: Pierninsula, Piercadilly Point, Pier View Mirror, Pierachute Landing and Tipoff's piersonal favorite, The Pierascope.





Lois Ann Scaravelli wrote to suggest the pier be named in honor of her late husband, Sam, who had a vision for the Scranton Peninsula three decades ago when few others did. The pier sits in a marina basin he created and the path is on land he once owned. Her son, Chuck, made the same case.





"Well, jeez, those are kind of frivolous type names and this would be really so apropos to have. I think it signifies everything that is his view and the way he approached life. I think it's appropriate and I'm not just saying that because he's my father," said Chuck Scaravelli.





Now that the pier is already named, perhaps there's another way to pay tribute to Sam's mission.