The Cuyahoga Valley National Park is one step closer to getting a new central visitor center.
This week, the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s board of directors authorized the purchase of land and buildings on the southeast corner of Riverview and Boston Mill roads in Boston Township.
The property will be renovated to serve as a central, one-stop visitor center where visitors can plan their visit to the national park and surrounding communities.
The friends-of-the-park group has set a fundraising goal of $5.96 million to purchase, renovate and outfit what would become the Cuyahoga Valley National Park’s first full-service visitor center.
“The Conservancy is in its final stages of raising funds to support this project and is confident that it will be 100 percent funded by June 30, 2017, given the generous support of area foundations, corporations and individuals,” conservancy CEO Deb Yandala said in an email this week.
Design will be completed in 2017 with construction beginning in 2018 and completion in 2019.
In other news, the conservancy announced it received a $100,000 grant from the Gimbel Foundation Fund in California to pay for the East Rim mountain bike trail to be completed.
Just over 2 miles of the East Rim Trail opened last fall. It will be 6.5 miles long when finished in December 2017.
Part of the grant will also be used on a youth work crew to help restore some existing park trails using “sustainable trail design” methods.