Photo Credit: Blake Aued

Athens-Clarke County officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning for the new Pulaski Creek Greenway.

The concrete path—funded by $984,308 from SPLOST 2005—connects the Athens Community Council on Aging, on Hoyt Street off College Avenue, and Pulaski Street near the Leathers Building.

It includes a bridge over Moore's Branch, which, Leisure Services officials recently discovered, is the actual name of the creek that runs parallel to Pulaski Street, not Pulaski Creek, which it's popularly known by.

Although voters approved it 10 years ago, the project took a decade to complete because it required negotiations with CSX Transportation to use the railroad's property. 

Eventually, whenever funds become available, ACC plans to extend the new greenway north to Cleveland Avenue, where it would tie in with the new CHARM recycling center and the North Oconee River Greenway. That expansion will require cooperation from another railroad, Norfolk Southern.

Public meetings on future plans for the greenway are scheduled for Monday, Aug. 4, Tuesday, Aug. 5 and Monday, Aug. 11 from 5–7:30 p.m. at the Planning Department on Dougherty Street.