Left to right: Dallas County Director of Public Works Alberta Blair, District 4 Park Board member Blair Harrison, Park Board president Arun Agarwal, District 4 City Councilwoman Carolyn King Arnold, County Commissioner John Wiley Price, Dallas Park Department Assistant Director Renee Johnson, Oncor Vice President of Customer Engagement Allyn Giles
A 5.5-mile trail costing $7.2 million opened near Beckley and Overton recently.
Dallas County paid $6.42 million for the Honey Springs/Cedar Crest Trail. The City of Dallas paid the remainder, from 2017 bond funds, along with Oncor.
The trail, which is on an Oncor easement, is the longest continuous trail in South Oak Cliff. It provides nearly 6 miles of green space in neighborhoods that have been undervalued and overlooked when it comes to quality of life.
County Commissioner John Wiley Price championed the project. Before the county handed the property over to the city, neighbors complained of high weeds because it hadn’t been mowed. He said he was out there himself, on his 71st birthday in April, working a weed-eater with the crew to get it taken care of.
“One thing about these trails, they’ll either make you want to stay in government, or you want to leave,” he said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday.
District 4 City Councilwoman Carolyn King Arnold read a “special recognition” to Price and the Commissioners Court for “advocacy for health, wellness and continuous promotion of quality-of-life enhancements.”
“This trail is evidence of that,” Arnold said. “His ambition for equity will be remembered for decades to come.”
The trail also connects to the 1.8-acre South Oak Cliff Renaissance Park, which opens Nov. 13, and it’s a connection between a DART station, Parkland’s Bluitt-Flowers Health Center and South Oak Cliff High School.
