Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton County officials have secured the needed agreements to extend the Warren Bike-Hike Trail further north and are exploring possible funding streams to do the work.

County officials would love to see the Warren Bike-Hike Trail that connects the city to North Warren extend all the way to the New York state line.

That’s a vision that brings some significant challenges.

But progress that could extend the trail north beyond the Warren State Hospital grounds has been made.

“We have agreements to get up past the mall property,” County Planner Dan Glotz told the Times Observer. “The engineering is done for that part.”

The original plan would have seen the trail head that way but all the needed right-of-ways from property owners couldn’t be secured.

The proposal to expand to the north would bring the trail across the front of the commercial properties just south of the Hatch Run Rd. intersection then use the existing traffic signal to cross.

Glotz said the trail would follow past Arby’s right along Route 62 and turn onto the Ed Shults car dealership property to get to the parking lot itself, continuing north along one edge of the lot.

With the engineering complete, he said the next step is “searching for the funding to build it.”

The existing three miles were funded by a PennDOT grant and Glotz said that grant window opens later this year.

“It’s really popular,” he added. “Trails are popular everywhere now” as people “appreciate” having them in their communities.

Taking the trail to the New York line to link with a trail system is compounded by property ownership issues.

The current trail sits on the railbed for the former NY Central line. The line came down Fourth Ave. past the courthouse and cut to East St. before proceeding north to New York.

Glotz explained that there were “any mix of ways” that railroad owners procured property from purchases to right of ways to agreements where property would revert back to a prior owner. In some instances, the property was just taken.

One potential way to head north would be to incorporate the Big Four Rd. Township officials continue to debate the road’s future, including possible vehicular closure.

But, Glotz said, that poses some challenges — maintaining access to the homes on the paved portion of the road.

“If I’m going to use the roadway as a bike trail, I gotta use the whole thing,” Glotz said, or with dedicated trail lanes on each side. As a result, there probably isn’t enough roadway to go around.

Glotz acknowledged that some people just don’t want a trail cutting through their property.

“It would be nice to get all the way to the New York line. (We are) going to have to get creative, I think.”