BY LUCIE KRISMAN
Among long-term goals of city staff for improving Eudora are adding more accessibility to the city and keeping the community active.
Parks Director Sally Pennington said the Bluejacket Trail project fit into fulfilling both of these goals.
"It's another piece to our master plan puzzle," Pennington said. "We’re really excited to keep improving our city and getting people outside and enjoying the beautiful parks."
Construction on the trail finished in November and the trail has since then been open for use. The trail begins at 12th and Winchester Road and runs along Winchester Road to 12th and Hawthorne Street, connecting to the existing quarter-mile trail in Bluejacket Park. From start to finish, the new addition makes the entire trail almost one mile.
The trail also features a new QR F.I.T. Trail, which adds a virtual component that allows residents to scan a QR code on their cellphones and access different exercise videos at five stations on the trail. The videos change weekly, and Bluejacket Trail is the first trail in Kansas to feature a QR F.I.T. product.
"We were excited just to give people another opportunity to be contact-free with no equipment needed but still have something to do exercise-wise when they're trying to be active," Pennington said. "It's free for everybody, and it's just another way to add some extra fitness into your walk."
City management analyst Jeff Rhodes said the changing videos give people a chance to use them regularly on the trail without getting bored.
"That's really their business model," Rhodes said. "You can have a real gym experience almost every time you go to your park to work out because there will be different exercises there and you don't have to get stuck in a rut."
The new additions to the trail were financed through a state grant from the Kansas Department of Transportation. The grant covered 80% of the project cost while the Eudora Parks and Rec capital improvements fund financed 20%.
Originally scheduled for Nov. 23, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the trail was canceled due to COVID-related restrictions on mass gatherings and has yet to be rescheduled.
The final phase of construction on the trail coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic and months of quarantining, Pennington has seen Eudora residents using outdoor amenities such as city parks, walking trails and disc golf more than ever before.
She said the new Bluejacket Trail and its new virtual component will provide residents with more ways to stay active while also staying safe.
“That was the silver lining with COVID,” Pennington said. “We really took a lot of pride in making
sure that no matter what was going on, they were still in the best shape they possibly could be.”
Reach reporter Lucie Krisman at eudoratimes@gmail.com.
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