I attended an update meeting for the Towpath Trail held at the Cleveland Metroparks on February 7th, 2017 at the Ohio and Erie Canalway Center. The meeting was a bit of an upset as new trail completion stages for the "Towpath Trail" extension to downtown were released.

The tentative start dates for each segment are as follows:

• Stage One - Old Harvard trailhead to Steelyard - 2019
• Stage Two - Steelyard -completed
• Stage Three - Steelyard to Clark Field and to Tremont - February 2017
• Stage Four - Tremont to Canal Basin Park - partially complete - finishing in Spring 2018

The most important aspect, to me, of this announcement- would be that the Canalway Partners have scrapped the insane Harshaw Chemical route plan proposal for a much saner alternative using the right-of-way along Old Harvard and Jennings Rd.

Also revealed - Stage Four Canal Basin Park - will be completely reconfigured. Stage Three also needs a very complicated alignment to skirt the lead and PAH contamination found at Clark Field.