Residents have put the Model Mile of the Firefly Trail to use since its completion in 2021.
“As soon as the mile went down in Maxeys, all the neighbors started getting out and walking and walking their dogs and riding their bicycles,” said Mary Cook, president of Firefly Trail Inc. “It’s almost like, once you have this community space, people fill it with all kinds of community-minded things from exercise and just getting outside to fundraisers.”
The Model Mile is the only completed portion of the trail in Oglethorpe County, but construction on a 4.5-mile portion between Maxeys and the Greene County line is being greenlighted after Oglethorpe County was awarded $2.9 million in federal and state grants.
This grant was awarded in conjunction with another $2.7 million grant to Greene County, which will use the money to construct the remaining portion of its 6.8 miles of trail, along with a trailhead in Union Point.
In total, the Firefly Trail has received $5.6 million for the completion of different segments of the trail this year.
Counties that receive grants of this size are usually required to provide matching funds that are around 20% of the total grant amount, and the Firefly Trail holds fundraisers, such as its annual Ticket to Ride event, to help cover matching requirements.
“That’s the amazing thing about this grant — there’s no match,” said Cook.
According to a July 3 press release, $2.32 million of the grant is provided by the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Alternatives Program. The match amount of $580,000 will be covered by the Georgia Department of Transportation’s Transportation Trust Fund, instead of Oglethorpe County.
“This award will enable construction of Firefly Trail’s first segment in unincorporated Oglethorpe County,” said District 5 Commissioner Tracy Norman in the press release. “Rural counties and small towns don’t have that kind of money, so we are gratified that the state sees the potential for this project and the benefits it will bring to the people of Oglethorpe County.”
Construction on another part of the trail — a section that is .9 of a mile in Maxeys — could begin in the fall, Mayor Edward Toledano said.
Based on the success of the completed 1.5-mile trail in Winterville, Cook said she believes that the expansion of the trail in Maxeys will help “bring the whole community together” and provide a space that other organizations can utilize for events and fundraisers. Firefly Trail Inc. also hopes to have an impact on a larger scale by drawing visitors for agritourism.
“Other trails that have been built throughout Georgia and throughout other states, what happens is people that are on the trail want to have a place to go and have ice cream or pizza or a drink,” said Betsey Collins, chair of the North Oglethorpe County Firefly Trail Support Group. “It seems like sometimes little stores will come along the trail. Like in Crawford, there’s the pizza place, and they might get more business.”
Cook said this focus on agritourism in Oglethorpe County was the preferred alternative to other ways of increasing the county’s tax base.
“It’s such a beautiful county with such beautiful scenery, the idea of having big industry or another granite mine or whatever, those kinds of things just sounded terrible for the county,” she said. “Agritourism and trails just seemed like, ‘Wow, what a great idea.’”