The city completed paving another section of the Oxford Area Trail System (OATS) southeast of town. This segment is estimated to cost $1.7 million, of which $86,000 came from a voter-approved levy.
When complete — possibly some time in 2025 — the system will run 12 miles around Oxford.
Video by Jake Ruffer
Oxford residents and visitors can now enjoy a new stretch of Trail paved in April connecting Pepper Park to tallawanda High School running along Collins Creek the trail is the latest addition to the Oxford Area Trail system or oats city engineer Scott Otto said they have just a few finishing touches left they finished the paving last week and they have some some fine grading and seating and top soil placement um to do and also um some railing and all the final signage um that needs to go in before you know it’s officially complete the new Trail is Phase 3 segment B and brings the system closer to its planned final form the oats now runs uninterrupted from the high school to the black covered bridge with further expansion planned and even started along the south side of town the last phase will connect Oxford Community Park to Mary day park the city tapped westchester’s sunus construction to bring the trail to life the company built phases two and three and has started work on phase four which will run along Brookfield Road and Oxford Riley Road connecting tallawanda Middle School to the Oxford Community Park Otto has been with the city of Oxford for 18 years and alongside his other responsibilities he has worked on the oats since phase two yeah we we work with overseeing the contractors’s work and um progress we do minimum at least once a day visits to the site um take records of of the work being completed talk to them about any potential issues that may be coming up um so um we kind of do that on a day-to-day basis and U you know keep track of of the uh the funding available in relation to um you know the work that they’re submitting that’s being completed so we review all that with the contractor and just make sure everything’s going as it’s supposed to phase three cost about $1.7 million with most funding granted by Oki a regional federal transportation agency the rest came from Miami University which paid for sections of trail on its own land or from residents the majority of which voted for a levy to cover the Trail’s remaining costs citizens and Miami students wasted no time testing out the trail me and my friend just come and run here a lot and it’s just a Scenic Place to come walk rather than Uptown and everything but I think it’s really nice and I’m excited to try out the new trails and everything seems really popular and that’s nice to see so many people enjoying it reporting by Jake ruer Oxford Observer