PALM
BAY -- Roy Vasta spent his lunch break from Harris Corp. recently walking a new trail in Palm Bay along a canal.
Now,
thanks to a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the city will extend that walkway for people
and horses another 3,000 linear feet.
"It's quiet and peaceful, and you see wildlife, such as snakes and turtles," Vasta said. He said he would try to get back
into running "after all my sins at the end of the year."
The walkway begins on Port Malabar Boulevard east of Briar Creek Boulevard and jags east in a straight line along the north
edge of the Malabar Cameron Preserve and Malabar Scrub Sanctuary. The second phase of the project will take the walkway to
the Malabar Town Line and the Malabar trailhead.
The 1.2-mile trail is the first section to be finished of the proposed South Brevard Lineal Trail Project, said Sue Hann,
Palm Bay assistant city manager.
"It's a recreation project, but also a transportation project," she said. The first phase was completed with a Department
of Transportation enhancement grant of about $270,000. The city is providing $50,000 budgeted in the Capital Improvements
Program and $17,000 as in-kind services.
Hann said the city also is considering a pedestrian bridge across the canal "to provide better connections from the Palm
Bay neighborhoods to the trail."
Thursday, the Palm Bay City Council approved the contract with the Office of Greenways and Trails to accept the grant.
Melbourne resident Paula Haderle, who has raised quarter horses for 30 years in Brevard County, said few trails are left
for horse riders.
Haderle and her friends rode their horses from their home on Wickham Road and along Turtle Mount and Aurora roads. We rode
from Pineda Causeway to Crystal Lake every day during the summer," Haderle said. "Now, if you don't have a trailer, what do
you do?" she asked. She said the new trail and extension would provide another place for her to ride.
