Village hosts ribbon cutting for new canoe/kayak launch
June 16 marked the culmination of an effort and the beginning of a journey. The Village of Waterford hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Village Hall Park to mark the official opening of four canoe and kayak launches.
The launches are designed to provide safe and easy access around the two major impediments to water travel on Fox River, according to local officials.
Now paddlers are able to travel from the headwaters in Waukesha County through Racine and Kenosha counties to the Wisconsin-Illinois state line and beyond as the launches allow portage around the Waterford and Rochester dams.
The launches are in Waterford at Village Hall Park and at Racine County’s Case Eagle Park in Rochester. The cooperative project between Racine County and the Village of Waterford was funded, in part, through a Stewardship Grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and Racine Community Foundation.
Cathy Stepp, secretary of the Wisconsin DNR and Sheila Bugalecki, president of Racine Community Foundation spoke at the ribbon cutting which was scheduled to include Racine County Executive, Jonathan Delagrave; Kimberly Breunig, Kenosha County Chair, and Dale Shaver, director of Waukesha County Parks and Land Use.
The Stewardship Grant covered 50 percent of the construction costs, with the Foundation providing $40,000, and the village and county paying the balance for their respective sites. The total cost of the project was $208,123, according to officials.
Native Construction was contracted to complete the four launch sites.
The event was also a platform to announce the development of a water trail on the Fox River from Waukesha County to the confluence with the Illinois River in Ottawa, Ill.
The Village of Waterford has been working with others in Wisconsin and Illinois to develop the approximately 220-mile water trail. A grant for technical assistance from the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Technical Assistance program was awarded to the group last fall and includes the services of NPS staff member, Angie Tornes, to guide the group in developing a trail.
Other members of the core development team include Karen Miller, planner for Kane County Ill., and member of the Fox River Ecosystem Partnership; Tom Slawski, Southeast Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission and Fox River Partnership; Rick Kania SEWRPC; and Brian Daly, Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning; and Greg Farnham, Rock River Trail Initiative, a water trail project completed in 2010 that received designation as a national water trail from the National Park Service.
Following the ribbon cutting, paddlers took to the water and guests were invited to stay for River Rhythms, Waterford’s summer concert series in Village Hall Park.
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