STEUBENVILLE — Even Jefferson Soil and Water Conservation District Watershed Coordinator Aaron Dodds doesn’t think spending the $100,000 state capital fund grant the city received for a water line extension should actually be spent extending water to the marina and building restrooms

Dodds, JSWCD watershed coordinator, believes there are other funding opportunities the city could tap into down the road for that if and when council wants to pursue it.

Instead, Dodds, speaking on behalf of various “public/private entities” interested in seeing the waterfront developed, suggested council consider using the $100,000 the state earmarked for the marina improvements to leverage another $300,000 in grant money — giving the city $400,000, or four-times the spending power of the original grant. The city could spend all of it, Dodds said, or opt to recycle that original $100,000 grant as the local match for more grants.

Dodds contends the plan would give the city the funds it needs to develop a biking-walking trail from the Market Street Bridge northward past the marina to Alikanna. That’s important, he said, because the 3,700-mile Great American Rail Trail from Washington, D.C., to Seattle is slated to pass through the Northern Panhandle, cut across the Market Street Bridge and then cross Jefferson County, following the U.S. Route 22 corridor to Jewett, where it would connect with the Conotton Valley Trail.

Studies across the nation have shown biking-hiking trails — in particular, regional and/or national trails, like the Great American Rail Trail — jump start economies, Dodds said.

¯ The 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail, for instance, attracts more than 2 million users a year who spend upwards of $160 million annually as they traverse the trail, which stretches across 14 states from Georgia to Maine.

¯ Studies by the Walton Family Foundation concluded bicycling had generated $137 million in economic benefits to Northwest Arkansas in 2017.

¯ A 2014 study by a New York university concluded roughly $253 million in sales, 3,440 jobs, $78 million in labor income and $28.5 million in taxes in the local economy each year were attributable to the 14-county Erie Canal Trailway.

¯ The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, part of the Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition’s 1,500-miles-plus regional trail network vision, generates nearly $7 million a year in trail user spending, according to a 2017 study.

¯ The 150-mile Great Allegheny Passage Trail is said to generate in excess of $40 million annually in trail user spending, with trail-related businesses paying out nearly $8 million yearly in wages.

“They have the Ohio-Erie rail coalition going through downtown Akron,” Dodds said. “It was an economically deprived center. Once they installed the Ohio-Erie Canal trailway, businesses started building up along the corrdidor. Now it’s one of their hotspots.”

Dodds figures the same thing could happen in Steubenville.

“The proof is all around us,” he said. “If you’re looking at the trail to be a magic bullet that overnight will make Steubenville like 1940s Steubenville, no, that’s not going to happen — nothing economic development-wise is going to make that happen. But you have to move forward — this is a good way of shaking that rust belt stigma, by improving that greenspace and improving the quality of life.”

Dodds said Ohio Department of Natural Resources also is interested in helping fund construction of a new boat ramp at the marina, and he maintains granting agencies like Clean Ohio and Ohio Nature Works are predisposed to seeing a project like the riverfront trail happen, and said there are groups involved in the rails-to-trails movement willing to flex their lobbying muscle to help get the money to pay for it.

If it’s just a dream, Dodds insists, “It’s a dream that’s very realistic.”

“Mr. Villamagna (6th Ward Councilman Bob Villamagna) mentioned I came up with it,” Dodds adds. “I really didn’t. It came straight from the city’s comprehensive plan. I just stitched it together.”

The comprehensive plan, adopted in 2014, was considered the blueprint for the city’s future: Before making their recommendations, consultants looked at just about every aspect of life in Steubenville — how to achieve job diversity, remove barriers to employment and business development, retain the best and brightest, restore vibrancy to the downtown, build community pride and a sense of community, reverse declining property values and rental conversions; provide a greater housing mixture and price points; meet the needs of a growing senior population; add green space and beautify the city; create inviting gateways into the city and improve community health, including a system that encourages walking and biking.