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Yorktown Trail Town Committee Activities Look To Boost Economic Development

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y. -- In a presentation to the Town Board Tuesday night, Yorktown resident Mark Linehan and Yorktown Heights businessman David Goldes (Rita's of Yorktown), co-chairs of the community-based Yorktown Trail Town Committee, unveiled the group’s first completed project -- a commissioned map of the North County Trailway as it passes through Yorktown Heights.

The Yorktown Trail Town Committee is seeking to promote the town's hiking, biking and walking trails.

The Yorktown Trail Town Committee is seeking to promote the town's hiking, biking and walking trails.

Photo Credit: Provided

The tourist-style map is designed to encourage trail users to take advantage of the many shops, restaurants and services available to them as they enter Yorktown at Railroad Park.

The map is the first in a series of planned initiatives to promote Yorktown as a trail town and use the town’s many walking, biking and hiking trails as an opportunity for local economic development. The trail town concept has been successful in drawing visitors into downtown areas in many parts of the county.

Linehan said the Yorktown Heights map will be the focus of a new brochure, The North County Trailway at Yorktown Heights. Paid for by ads and donations, copies of the free brochure will be available in June at local businesses in the hamlet and at other locations likely to attract visitors to Yorktown.

In addition to promoting the trailway, the brochure is designed to invite visitors to explore Yorktown’s other trails, parks and farms. The committee is in the process of raising money via donations and grants to erect two permanent Welcome to Yorktown Heights gateway signs featuring the trailway map at the north and sound ends of Railroad Park.

“Trail users spend money,” Linehan told the Town Board, “whether it’s for an ice cream cone or a sit-down meal, to service their bikes or do some shopping. And what better place for visitors using the North County Trailway to spend their money than in the Heights hamlet, the only commercial area along the Trailway between Millwood and Baldwin Place.”

According to a county study, visitors to the North County Trailway spend an average of $11 per trip on food and use the trail an average of 78 times a year.

“Even if only 10 percent of trailway visits bring business to the Heights, that’s additional money coming into our local economy,” Linehan said.

The Yorktown Trail Town Committee was organized last September with the goal of promoting economic development by making Yorktown a destination for hikers, cyclists, walkers, and nature enthusiasts. The committee is working on a series of additional trail promotion initiatives involving other sections of Yorktown.

One project will be posting specially designed “What’s Nearby” signs at five trail kiosks so hikers have an idea of what services, such as food, gas stations and auto repair shops are available near the trails. The signs are being designed by Kim Kroupa, a senior at Yorktown High School, as part of a civic internship program with the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference.

The Yorktown Trail Town Committee also is planning a series of guided special events on Saturday, June 6, as part of National Trail Day. For more details, check the Committee’s web site, www.yorktowntrailtown.com.

For information about the committee, or to make a donation, visit www.yorktowntrailtown.com or e-mail yorktowntrailtown@gmail.com.

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