Emma Bellantoni, Campus Carrier staff writer
The completion of the Mount Berry Connection trail opens opportunities for Berry students to utilize the resource off campus for athletics and exploration.
The completion of the Mount Berry Connection was celebrated this July. This addition to the previous 3.5-mile route has established an 8-mile loop to complete a continuous 13-mile paved multi-purpose trail starting behind the U.S. Post Office on Coligni Way. The trail offers the ability to connect individuals with entertainment and recreation.
The plan for the trail came to fruition in 1970 but was later canceled due to the selling of property in 1977. After 50 years, the trail is finally complete and able to be used by the public.
Floyd County Commissioner, Wright Bagby, had been working on the plans for the trail since the beginning in 1970. Bagby believes that the connection this trail offers is what makes it so special.
“It has a lot more than just beauty and a little recreation for some people,” Bagby said. “It has a great deal to do with connectivity in our community. It gives us a quality-of-life thing that a lot of communities don’t have and gives us the thing that makes us a little bit different from other communities.”
Bagby believed that the lack of green spaces has led to an issue with people not being able to connect. He criticized Floyd County, saying that they haven’t done the best job of putting green spaces on the forefront in the last 15 years, but hopes to do better.
The Mount Berry Trail was completed this July with a
3.5 mile addition starting on Coligni Way.
“Most neighborhoods had a playground or a park or something in them, and it got the neighborhood together and provided a place for people to go outside,” Bagby said. “We need to do a little bit more of that.”
Bagby hopes to continue to grow the trail to connect it with Lindale, a city south of Rome.
“If we ever get the connection from the new trail system over through the entryway to Berry to connect with the Viking Trail, it’ll be a huge asset to the community and to Berry College,” Bagby said. “That’d be one of our goals in the future.”
Keep Rome-Floyd Beautiful, a local organization aimed to educate on better waste management options that protect the environment, created a mural along the trail. The mural was created in partnership with Renee Peterson of Peachie Queen Art, local to the North Georgia art scene. The mural is meant to tie in art with green spaces.
Berry College offers many trails on campus, but students are still looking to use the AdventHealth ECO Greenway off campus.
Junior Leine Burke, a long-distance runner on the Berry Cross Country and Track and Field team, is looking forward to using the trail to train.
“A trail opening off campus is really exciting,” Burke said. “It gives us another place to run and explore as a team. It would be a nice change of scenery from the Berry trails, which are already amazing, but it is just something else to do.”
Although sophomore Jackson Pruett has not had much time this semester, he would like to use the trails to get to know the surrounding city better.
“While I haven’t really been able to go on the trails now, I think I would really enjoy getting to go on a weekend, where you explore Rome,” Pruett said.