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Sun 'N Lake Cart Path Finished

By Bill Rettew Jr. | Highlands Today

Published: November 24, 2007

SEBRING — Children and adults can now play a little less in the streets than they did at the Sun 'n Lake of Sebring Improvement District.

The addition of a new eight-foot-wide concrete multi-use cart path gives bikers, joggers, walkers and golf cart drivers a safer alternative to riding in the roadway on Sun 'n Lake Boulevard.

The new mile-long path starts at the snack shack for the golf club and stretches to Cortez Boulevard while running parallel to Sun 'n Lake Boulevard.

Al Grieshaber Jr., SNL general manager, said preparation, which included landscape removal in a "non-
functional wetlands, " plus grading and installation took about 45 days and cost $110,000.

Grieshaber expects to eventually extend the path another mile west to Balboa Boulevard and connect with the main trail head of the Sun 'n Lake Preserve, an off-road biking park with several miles of single and double track trails.

The cart path creates safer access to several miles of hardtop roadways which are rarely used by vehicular traffic. Those roads were built to accommodate future growth. A biker or runner is now able to safely navigate almost two miles of cart paths starting at U.S. 27.

"It opens up recreational activities for our residents and it's one more step in our goal to be the preeminent community in Highlands County to live and recreate," said Grieshaber. "It's definitely an enhancement to safe exercise. Everybody has to walk and we're trying to give them the opportunities for a safe environment."

Grieshaber said the cart path will remove several golf cart owners in the SNL division Magnolia Place off the road and on to safer concrete.

Gator Howerton, an engineer with Polston Engineering, said water and sewer lines were laid beneath the new cart path, and depending on use, should last for at least 50 years.

Peter Savacool is owner of the Bike Shop in Sebring and said that adding pathways accessible by bikes is always a good thing.

"Anytime you add more bike paths and trails it gives senior citizens a safe place to ride and a good exercise path," said Savacool.

Grieshaber said the new path will complement an existing cart way winding through a high canopy of pine trees along the west side of Lake Granada, from the golf clubhouse to the community center.

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