COVINGTON, Ga. — When city officials, Newton Trails supporters and residents walked through a red ribbon on Wednesday morning and over the new bridge on Cricket Frog Trail built from the remnants of an old train trestle, it marked the culmination of a more than 20-year community effort.

Cricket Frog Trail, a 15-mile rail trail running through central Newton County, has a 4-mile portion that runs through the city of Covington. On Wednesday, a ribbon “breaking” ceremony was held to celebrate the completion of trail paving and construction within the city limits.

As part of the ceremony, Covington Mayor Steve Horton and former mayor Kim Carter took a few minutes to share the history of how the Cricket Frog Trail came to be.

In 1997, local visionaries incorporated the Newton County Trail Path Foundation, Carter said. Inspired by Silver Comet Trail in west Georgia, the group wanted to build a similar trail system in Newton County.

Former Mayor Sam Ramsey initiated negotiations in the early 2000s to acquire and transform Norfolk Southern Railway’s Central Georgia corridor that ran through Newton County. Carter said she was blessed to follow Ramsey as mayor, as $2 million to fund the corridor’s acquisition and trail construction that had been petitioned for were finally becoming available. 

But when Norfolk Southern signaled ready to move forward, Carter said, politics and economics in 2009 “sadly threw an enormous wrench into our plans that we had forged over the preceding decade.”

But Carter and Horton, who served as city manager at the time, worked diligently to try to find a way forward.

“It was way more arduous and painful that it had to be,” Carter said. “It was a difficult time, to say the least.”

“At that time … the odds were seemingly insurmountable against a trail becoming a reality, and the effort was halted,” Horton said. “But the vision in the minds of a group — Newton Trails … along with the cooperation of the railroad, they were able to broker a lease agreement and set out to create what is now called the Cricket Frog Trail.”

By 2010, the fate of the rail corridor was in serious jeopardy, but perseverance paid off, Carter said. A group of residents and local government leaders, including Rob Fowler of the Arnold Foundation and former Newborn Mayor Roger Sheridan, pulled together to keep the Norfolk Southern Railways deal alive.

Sheridan actually persuaded his council to let him approach Norfolk Southern Railways about purchasing the corridor.

“Imagine that,” Carter said. “Newborn, a town of less than 700 people, saw that reality, but our 14,000 in the city of Covington and our 100,000 people [in Newton County] … we just couldn’t get it done at that time.”

But again, those efforts of Sheridan were to no avail, and it seemed time had run out, Carter said. But as Norfolk Southern Railways filed to abandon the corridor in July 2013, one month later Newton Trails filed a Notice of Interim Trail Use (NITU) with the Surface Transportation Board — “a last ditch effort” to prevent the abandonment and preserve the corridor, Carter said. 

Newton Trails continued to negotiate with Norfolk Southern, and, in late March 2016, the company signed a lease agreement with Newton Trails allowing the organization to develop and use the corridor as a public access trail.

“Since then, the PATH Foundation has joined in and prepared a master plan for the trail and has provided design and oversight assistance all along the way to this day,” Horton said.

“The City of Covington signed a sub-lease with Newton Trails in 2018. In 2020, [the city council] approved $1 million — no small sum in funding — for the completion of approximately 3.9 miles of unpaved trail corridor within the city.”

Shortly after, joint funding up to $400,000 by the city of Covington and Newton Trails was approved to complete rehab work on the historic rail trestle over Dried Indian Creek. Covington committed to spending about $230,000, and Newton Trails was tasked to cover the remaining $170,000. 

In total, the city of Covington has allocated more than $1.6 million to trail funding. City Manager Scott Andrews said the investment was well worth it.

“The Cricket Frog Trail is absolutely transformative for Covington,” Andrews said. “It significantly improves the quality of life for our residents, provides transportation alternatives and is an enormous economic development driver.”

Horton said the trestle bridge’s recent completion and renovation represented “a major hurdle” to the completion of the entire trail. 

“We could walk it in both directions, but when you go here, you had to get off and get in swampy ground,” he said. “But now, uninhibited travel. And we appreciate that.”

Horton called the trestle bridge and trail “marvelous” and said it would only improve the quality of life for residents and tourists, who could enjoy it for many years to come.

Carter described the trestle bridge as a “critical link.”

“It echoes our past. It’s where the railroad first connected Covington to Porterdale, Starrsville, Hasten, Mansfield, Newborn and all points beyond,” Carter said. 

“For trail users today, it unites neighborhoods in the western and the eastern halves of our city. We’re standing on the banks of the creek, whose waters flow to us from Oxford. The very point where we are standing today is the intersection of our past, our present and our future. The crossroads for all of Newton County.

“Perseverance has paid off for the Cricket Frog Trail,” she added. “And we, all of us, are forever grateful beneficiaries of all that hard work and perseverance.”

PATH Foundation Project Manager Foundation Project Manager Jonathan McCaig spoke briefly, saying he was proud to have a role in the construction of such a “unique” trail.

“It’s always neat to go in and repurpose a former transportation corridor into a multi-purpose trail,” he said. “It’s really magical looking behind me [at the trestle bridge], looking at how it started and what it looks like today.”

Newton Trails Chairperson Duane Ford concluded the ceremony with comments of gratitude and appreciation for the many people and organizations involved with the trail’s construction.

“If you think about it, it was just five and a half years ago when we signed the lease with Norfolk Southern Railways for this 14.9 miles of railroad right of way,” Ford said. “And in those five and a half years, it’s pretty amazing that we now have 12 miles paved.”

Ford also gave a “shout out” to the residents of Newton County. As taxpayers, their contribution through the passage of a 2017 SPLOST was more than necessary, he said. 

“I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t shout out a thank you to the taxpayers who funded that SPLOST,” Ford said.

“You know, our national pastime is complaining about taxes, but I look at it a little different. 

“To me, government and the taxes that we pay to support government and its programs and services, is about we the people giving magnificent gifts to ourselves. And this trail is a magnificent gift from the taxpayers  to us, and to all of the trail users.”

Looking ahead to the future, Ford said he was excited to see the Cricket Frog Trail’s remaining 1.9 miles of unpaved trail be completed. 

He also shed light on a few other projects Newton Trails was planning, including the renovation of a railroad trestle running across the Alcovy River and partnering with the county to build out the Yellow River Trail, among others.

“I know that the past has been frustrating in many respects, but I say this: ‘Maybe it’s time to put aside the frustrations of the past and look forward to the successes of the future,’” Ford said.

“We need to build that Alcovy River bridge, we need to build and expand and connect our trails, and we need to realize the vision of a trail connected Newton County.”