BARNESVILLE — Barnesville officials learned recently that it might still be possible to make changes to the long-awaited Rails to Trails Project, but the village would likely have to foot the bill if those changes lead to increased costs.

The project — which will convert a portion of the old B&O Railroad bed that runs through the village into a biking and walking trail and make related infrastructure improvements along the trail and to the railroad tunnel that passes beneath Main Street — has been beset by legal and logistic delays since funding was announced in 2018.

A public meeting that was held Sept. 11 prior to a scheduled council meeting was attended by a number of interested residents along with Mayor Dale Bunting, Village Administrator Roger Deal and several council members as Ohio Department of Transportation District 11 LPA Manager Dan Lorenz and project engineers Joan Zbin and Mark Powell from Pennoni Associates Inc. made themselves available to answer questions and concerns about the beleaguered project.

Lorenz updated those present on the current status of the project, saying planners are waiting on environmental clearance before authorizing Pennoni to enter the final engineering stage, adding that the plans still have to be approved by the State Historical Preservation Office due to the historic nature of the tunnel.

Lorenz went on to say that as it stands now, he would expect construction to begin around July 2024 and would likely carry over into 2025 due to the extent of work being done to the tunnel and paving temperature restrictions.

He added that the estimated cost of $2.5 million for the construction and inspection phase is fully funded with grant money from Belomar Regional Council and ODOT’s Transportation Alternatives Program as well as local funding in the amount of $100,000, which was approved by village council in July.

Belomar also funded the design and engineering of the project, which cost over $300,000.

It was learned in February that the designated path of the trail would have to cross Railroad Street as many as three times.

Deal explained at the time that the extensive work needed to keep the trail on one side of the street would increase the cost of the project by $200,000.

This aspect of the design drew the dismay of a number of attendees, with T.J. Jefferis expressing safety concerns as the path will go along the North side of Railroad Street where there are a number of houses with driveways and he felt those residents would end up using the path for additional parking.

“It don’t make no sense whatsoever,” he said.

Lorenz answered that there was limited right of way on the south side of the street in that location and that the excavation needed to cut back the bank there and put in a retaining wall would be extensive. He said cost impact affected the decision to go with the current design.

“We have had to really work to get where we’re at with the current budget,” Lorenz said.

Lorenz noted that while it might be possible to change the plans to have the path go down the south side of the street, the additional cost would fall on the village and that doing so would also set the environmental approvals back to square one.

He also said that planners would likely have to request that the funding be moved to the following year, which may or may not be approved.

Jefferis and Councilman Steve Hill both spoke of drainage issues along the street with Zbin saying the plans do include grading, profiling, and “drainage structures.”

Lorenz spoke of possibly stopping the project at the end of the depot property and eliminating the trail up Railroad Street entirely, admitting, “It’s going to be hard at this point to go back.”

In the end it was decided that Lorenz would find out what changes would be possible to facilitate from his end while council members would have to decide if they were willing to spend additional funds so the path could stay on the south side of the street. A final decision is to be made by the next regular council meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.

When the subject was brought up during the council meeting on Sept. 11, Councilman Tony Johnson said that while he had had mixed feelings about it as the plans had been delayed and changed over the past several years, he sees merit in it.

“My goal is to get the tunnel fixed up so it won’t fall in,” he said. “The rest of it, if we can do it we can do it.”

Also during the Sept. 11 meeting, council approved Hill’s requests to designate a handicapped parking spot on westbound East Main Street and to keep a decommissioned police car that council had previously decided to put up for sale.