A year later, the regional Greenway

Clemson’s elected leaders are primed to act next week on phase one of a regional greenway.  The Pickens County municipality received interest from at least five contractors.  The idea to connect the trail west into Oconee County a year ago was met with division on the part of Oconee’s (then) five-member county council.  In a vote of 3-2 on February 1, 2022, Oconee County Council approved monies to survey for the project.  A regional greenway that extended about 15 miles into Oconee was seen by Paul Cain and Julian Davis as a recreation project to improve quality of life, to drive economic development, and to attract younger families into a county of increasingly graying population.  Glenn Hart and Matthew Durham, however, took the position that Oconee (and its abundant resources outdoors) already has many recreation opportunities and has more pressing needs to spend money.  Walhalla supporters of a separate greenway,to link up the city’s corporate limits, with the recreation offered to the Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel Park to the north survived an outcry of opposition and, in the end, received funding by the city’s leaders.