City Receives $786,000 Transportation Enhancement Grant to Connect Historic Battlefield/Linear Park Bike Trail to Fort Brown

According to Comprehensive City Planner Ramiro Gonzalez, the City of Brownsville has received a "Transportation Enhancement" Grant for $786,000 that will connect the Historic Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail that initiates at Linear Park and currently ends at the Palo Alto Battlefield with Fort Brown.

The good news for Brownville's downtown business owners is that it will NOT use the terminal side of E. Adams Street to make the connection.  That route, some taxpayers feared, would have eliminated 50 metered parking spaces in a city already concerned about downtown parking congestion.

City Planner Ramiro Gonzalez

"Yes, that rumor was out there, but that's not happening," stated Planner Gonzalez, in a phone conversation Thursday morning.  "I don't know where that came from.  We're in the process of deciding where to make the connection, but it will not be along Adams Street."

According to the website Brownsville Talk, discussing the proposed trail back in 2005, this connection may give the city the longest hike and bike trail in South Texas:

"In the near future near future, Brownsville will have the longest hike and bike trail in South Texas and maybe even San Antonio. Once it is completed and stretched linearly, I calculated about 9.1 miles long but doesn't include the section of the trail that UTB/TSC is going to build (called College Park) and the Paseo de la Resaca trail on the intersection of Paredes Line Rd that is already built that will eventually connect to the Brownsville hike & bike trail! Putting these together would equal to about 17 miles of hike and bike trail stretching from the Lincoln Park near UTB/TSC to the Palo Alto Historic National Battlefield Park near Los Fresnos."

The statement by Mr. Gonzalez, that no metered spaces will be removed to connect the Battlefield Hike & Bike Trail with Fort Brown also rules out Jefferson Street from receiving the striping and other accoutrements associated with a bike trail or lane.

Wednesday, January 22, the city held a Town Hall meeting on the ground floor of Market Square to discuss options to relieve parking congestion downtown.  Brownsville's City Commission had considered as an action item a proposal to triple downtown parking meter fees. Numerous downtown owners spoke out at the Town Hall meeting, with a clear majority opposed to the increase.  It was during that meeting that at least one downtown owner expressed concern over a rumor that 50 parking meters would be eliminated on the terminal side of Adams Street from E. 10th to International Blvd., but, according to Mr. Gonzalez, that rumor is unfounded.