The Mount Helena trailhead could be expanded with a new proposal from the Helena Rotary Club.
The Mt. Helena trailhead is one of many trailheads in Helena. However there is one problem, it lacks access for those with limited mobility.
“Right now, the Helena’s open lands doesn't have an ADA Compliance trail. Something up here in Mt. Helena, just doesn't exist. So, what the rotary club is hoping to do with this project is to give everybody in the community, the opportunity to really enjoy the open lands," says Zammit.
Tony Zammit is the President Elect for the Helena Rotary Club. The club is proposing to expand Helena's open lands with a new trail that meets the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“We are working very diligently to raise funds from the community. We don't want this to be something that is paid for with tax dollars because this is a wonderful community project, we are working very hard to raise funds for this,” says Zammit.
The finished product will cover about a half a mile of trail starting from the Mt. Helena parking lot. According to Zammit, the project will cost about $20,000.
The Helena Rotary will not open a source to raise donations until the project goes through the public process where anyone can comment on the proposal.
Zammit says the trail was inspired by the late Helena Commissioner Ed Noonan.
“The genesis of this project came from comments that were made by Commissioner Noonan at a public meeting in late 2018 where he said that even though he couldn’t go up and down the trails, because he had limited mobility issues, he loved going to the trailheads. That got the thoughts going in our minds at rotary, ‘well why don’t we have more access for people with limited mobility?’ And that is where this project came from,” details Zammit.
