Walkway Grant Moves Killington Gateway Project Forward

Vermont Standard

February 24, 2015

By Curt Peterson, Standard Correspondent
KILLINGTON — The town will soon be closer to realizing a 20-year-old dream as another stage of the town’s “Gateway Project” has received state financing.
The second phase of a public walkway was awarded a state grant earlier this month. According to Seth Webb, town manager, the planning commission hatched a plan to enhance Killington’s community in the early ’90s. In 2012, the project was presented to the town, including a welcome center, and a pedestrian and bicycle-friendly walkway to enhance and facilitate foot and bike travel around the village.
“That’s when the first walkway phase was built between Route 4 and Schoolhouse Road,” Webb said.
On Feb. 5, Governor Peter Shumlin and Transportation Secretary Sue Minter announced $2.1 million funding for current transportation alternative program grants, from which Killington’s walkway was awarded $227,174 — 80 percent of the Phase II project’s cost. The town will contribute the other $56,794. To be eligible for a TAP grant, projects have to include pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
Webb said construction will begin in June or July and they hope the project will be completed in time for fall foliage visitors. The next part of the Gateway Project will include Phase III of the walkway – an extension from West Hill Road south to the Killington Resort. Webb said the Town hopes to get a grant for that phase as well.
Phase II of the walkway will stretch 1,700 feet from Schoolhouse Road to West Hill Road, will be six feet wide and paved, have streetlights and benches, and it will be landscaped. It will access many of the businesses in the village. And there will be additional stops for the Marble Valley Regional Transit buses as well. The project has a price tag of $283,968 — discussed at a 2013 public information meeting.
“The project will also provide safe road crossing and pedestrian access to the elementary school,” Seth Webb said.
In 2012, residents voted down a new welcome center, in 2013, the old Bill’s Country Store, was renovated, using state grants, as a new chamber and welcome center.
And the handsome welcome center gets a lot of use, said Abby Roebuck, who welcomes visitors at the building.
“Presidents Day weekend also marks a week off for many schools. This is our biggest week of the year.”
She added that people come from as far away as Rutland every day to enjoy the resort because there aren’t enough local accommodations for the crowds.
“The first phase of the proposed walkway has already been a boon to town residents and visitors,” said Kyle Kerchner, principal of Killington-Pico Real Estate. “It’s safer, too. Before the walkway was built traveling was hazardous, to say the least.”
This Presidents Day, there was a steady stream of vehicles in both directions on Killington Road, traveling at highway speeds.
“The umbrella Gateway Project,” according to Kerchner, “is meant to change Killington’s image from a pass-through town except when Killington Ski Resort is open, to an all-year-round destination village.”
The three-phase walkway is part of that plan.
Kerchner cited Glens Falls, New York and Woodstock as examples of towns that have taken advantage of their locations and natural assets to benefit entire communities.
“We built the welcome center, and our hope is to slow people down to 25 mph as they get to Killington, like they do in Glens Falls and Woodstock. People will see the shops and the village, and, we hope, decide to park and stay a while.”
If one is curious how popular bicycling is in very hilly Killington, one can visit the Killington-Pico Cycling Club website. The club, founded in 1989, hosts cycling events at least once a week from April through October, and more often during the summer months.
Neither Webb nor Kerchner are aware of any opposition to the walkway or to any other parts of the Gateway Project.
“It hasn’t been controversial at all. Everybody has been on board from the start, once funding was secured,” Kerchner said. “It will be good for the entire community. Instead of passing through at 50 mph we hope people will stop here, shop here, and, maybe decide to live here. I think it’s going to be awesome!”