Help us raise $5,000,000 to ensure the SRT's future
Logjams and sinkholes, and trees...
Sometimes, the problems start with a sinkhole...The story of the Stewardship Fund
At Schuylkill River Greenways, we love building trail miles, refurbishing historic railroad bridges, and cutting ribbons on new projects. Thankfully, so do our many grant funders, from the federal government to private foundations.
Each year, though, we have to divert funds from building trail to maintaining the trail from the Montgomery County line just outside Pottstown, to its eventual terminus in Frackville Schuylkill County. When a sinkhole happens, or a logjam happens, or a catastrophic storm hits our region, we are responsible to returning the trail to the safe and accessible resource that communities depend on. The money for those projects comes from our trails operating budget and it is stretched thin. Every dollar diverted creates a delay in not only building trail, but also in being able to obtain grant funding for that work.
Your gift will help us reach our goal!
The Stewardship Fund is designed to tackle the major repairs that come with owning and maintaining a growing trail network, particularly projects too large for routine maintenance budgets and often ineligible for traditional grants. That could mean repairing a bridge, addressing storm damage, resurfacing a deteriorating section of trail or removing trees damaged by severe weather or blight. Just as importantly, the Fund will give SRG the flexibility to respond quickly when unexpected problems demand immediate, expert attention. As the trail grows, so does the responsibility for protecting that investment. SRG anticipates $4.3 million in major repair and upgrade costs over the next 10 years, separate from the cost of constructing new trail, which is largely supported through government funding.
A creative solution
Join Schuylkill River Greenways in Securing the Trails' Future:
The Stewardship Fund will provide the resources necessary to both move forward with trail completion, and keep up with all the maintenance and emergency issues that inevitably happen.
The Stewardship Fund will operate akin to an endowment fund. Once we achieve our goal of $5 million dollars, that sum will remain untouched in an investment account. The interest and earnings from that account will be used each year to cover our out-of-the-ordinary maintenance expenses, without touching the corpus of the Fund. With this approach, we will have a sustainable source of income to cover these relentless expenses without jeopardizing our trail building efforts.