YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The public is being asked to give their input on a new recreational trail that would connect Downtown to Mill Creek Metroparks.

Along with the City of Youngstown, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, Mill Creek MetroParks, and Youngstown State University officials will hold the meeting next week regarding a grant application.

The application will be submitted to the State of Ohio’s Recreational Trails Program and Clean Ohio Trail Fund to help pay for the trail, which is estimated at $875,000.

City officials will also show diagrams of the specific location the trail would go through. 

Youngstown Mayor John McNally tells 21 News the connection would start on Front Street near the Covelli Centre, then West on Front Street to Spring Common Bridge. The trail would continue over the bridge onto Mahoning Avenue, down Mahoning onto West Avenue. The trail would then continue left onto Tod Avenue, and half a mile down is the lower entrance to Mill Creek Park.

A preliminary map of the recreational trail is available here.

Mayor McNally says this decision to create a recreational bike trail from Downtown to Mill Creek has been something city officials have been discussing for about 15 years. 

The trail was a concept that was included in the city's unsuccessful TIGER grant, or the Federal Transportation Improvement Grant, and this trail is a small portion of that project. 

McNally says 75 percent of the grant funding would come from a Division of Ohio's Department of Natural Resources, while 25 percent would be funded by the city.

The public input meeting will be held Thursday at 3 p.m. in the Covelli Centre Community Room.