Bike path work started

It's been six years in the planning, but heavy equipment finally rolled on the Colusa levee this week.

By Friday, the levee had a new, smooth chip seal overlay and the bike lane was complete — phase one of Colusa Rotary Club's Fifth Street River Park.

The park is a cooperative effort between the Colusa Rotary Club, Colusa County, Colusa, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, according to Rotarian Vance Boyes, who has spearheaded the project for the past year.

Even more work is planned to construct a new main entrance on Fifth Street and nature reserve, Boyes said.

"Everyone has really pulled together on this," Boyes said. "It is private and public sector cooperation at its best."

The Colusa Rotary Club first began plans for the park in 2004, under then president Ray Krause, but the project lacked support from Colusa and county officials.

Rotary has been raising money for the project for several years, the most of which has come from club members. A private fundraising event was held in 2009 at the home of David Meyers, of California Family Foods.

The $50,000 project includes the paving of the levee, a Fifth Street walk-up with stairs, a nature park with irrigated landscape, and a paved bike and pedestrian path.

"People are going to dig it," Boyes said. "It's really going to enhance the use of the river, which is the best thing Colusa has going for it."

About $23,000 for the first phase of the project comes from Proposition 40, the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Act of 2002, which was awarded to the project by the county.

"This is a great project for bond money," said Supervisor Top Indrieri. "It is exactly the sort of thing the people voted for when they passed the proposition."

The park bond money comes from allocations to Indreri's District 2 and Supervisor Denise Carter's District 4 portions.

"These kind of projects are exactly what is needed in the county," Indrieri said. "It's good for the city, and ties in with eventual plans to have a bike bath all away around."

The first phase of the project, which included the widening of the Third Street auxiliary access and paving of the levee got underway Wednesday and took just three days to complete.

The work was done by Robert Rossini Construction Inc., of Williams and Joey Rocha Truck and Equipment, of Red Bluff.

"It looks great," Rossini said Friday. "You can ride over it on a 10-speed, when before you needed a dirt bike. It's more than what anyone expected."

Boyes said the Rotary Club hopes to begin the second phase of the project within six months.

The second phase will include a new Fifth Street entrance, behind Hoblit Motors, including stairs and illumination, and the planting of five acres of native grasses and scrubs.

Contact Susan Meeker at 458-2121 or smeeker@tcnpress.com.