Upper Saucon Rail Trail Officially Opens

Upper Saucon Township officials, representatives of St. Luke’s Quakertown Hospital and Saucon Valley Medical Center, Boy Scout Troop 301 and community members braved overcast skies and scattered showers for the grand opening of the Upper Saucon Rail Trail on Saturday.

Cutting the ribbon to signal the official opening of the two-mile trail were township supervisors Miro Gutzmirtl, Stephen Wagner and Joseph Horvath, along with township manager Tom Beil and Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Lee Kandt.

Boy Scout Troop 301 led the Pledge of Allegiance as well as the walk along the trail. Saucon Valley Medical Center had staff on hand to give free blood-pressure readings, and a representative of St. Luke’s Quakertown led a bicycle safety demonstration. The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources provided native wildflower seeds to those walking for distribution along the trail.

Township police will patrol the Rail Trail with a police bike donated by Lutron Electronics.

The theme of community and volunteering came up again and again among the speakers. “We want to send it [the trail] back to the people,” Board Chairman Gutzmirtl said. “Let these trails be friendly trails.”

Vice Chairman Wagner seconded this sentiment and asked for those interested to contact the township to become a trail tender. Trail tending is the township’s plan for a community-based maintenance system in which citizens and community groups volunteer to keep up a section of the trail.

The local Rails to Trails project, which converted an inactive SEPTA rail line into a community bike and walking path, began in fall 2010. Upper Saucon’s portion was designed by the Pidcock Co. and developed by Harris Gramm Contractors. Upper Saucon’s two-mile section goes from Community Park northeast to Lower Saucon’s trail. The trail cost $356,000, but this money came primarily from impact fees paid by developers. No taxpayer money was spent on the trail.

The township currently plans to expand the trail an additional two miles to Coopersburg, though at this time the township has no time frame for when phase two will begin.