New walking, biking trail through Coleman Memorial Park is open to users

Phase 1 of the nearly $144,000 connector trail between Coleman Memorial Park and Union Canal Tunnel Park is completed and open to outdoor enthusiasts. 

Phase 1 consists of a trail that is .34 miles and runs from the upper parking lot above the baseball fields in Coleman Memorial Park, down along the baseball fields to where the park ends at North 22nd Street, according to Janelle Groh, community and economic development administrator for Lebanon. 

About a third of the trail is paved and the balance is gravel, according to Lebanon City Councilman Joseph Morales.

LebTown reported in June 2024 that the city had obtained funding to pay for its section of a connector trail between Coleman Memorial Park and the Union Canal Tunnel Park in North Lebanon Township. The two recreational areas are about a mile apart.

“So it’s been broken up into two phases. The part within the city of Lebanon is completed. That’s the connection from the parking lot at the baseball fields,” Groh said. “There’s like two switchbacks, and it takes you down to 22nd Street. That part of the project is completed.”

Groh said city officials are in talks with North Lebanon and West Lebanon township officials for one of them to complete the trail from North 22nd Street via Union Canal Drive to Union Canal Tunnel Park.

She noted that West Lebanon Township sits on the south side of Union Canal Drive while North Lebanon Township begins on the north side of that street.

“Now the goal is to connect us from Coleman Memorial Park then to Union Canal Tunnel Park,” Groh said. “So we worked with Wilson Consulting, we worked with them to design, actually, a couple different layouts. So because if you are on 22nd Street, or on the other side of 22nd Street, it’s broken up and you’ve got West Lebanon Township and you’ve got North Lebanon Township on either side of the road there that would connect you to Union Canal Tunnel Park. And so we actually have two sets of plans.”

Groh said the project began five years ago and discussions occurred at that time with other municipal officials about Phase 2. However, leadership in both municipalities have changed since then, so no final decisions have been made about who will complete Phase 2. 

“Because it’s outside of our jurisdiction, we could just support them and provide letters of support, but ultimately it would be up to them to then finish the connection,” she added.

Morales said Mayor Sherry Capello has held discussions with North Lebanon Township about creating the rest of the trail to connect to Union Canal Park.

“North Lebanon has shown interest in putting it right on the street, so we would have a painted crosswalk there, signage, and I don’t know if they would have gravel there or extend the street with paving to accommodate the path running along the north side of Union Canal Drive,” he said. “That’s what we’re leaning towards right now, but it is up to North Lebanon to put it in their budget or to make that decision.” 

Morales noted the hillside portion of the trail in the park was paved to address potential erosion concerns but additional funding was needed for the entire trail to receive macadam.

“We decided to pave it down to the flat area, down next to the ball field, And then the gravel goes out to 22nd Street and we have a gate across there. But it is accessible for walkers,” said Morales, who is also the vice president of the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail’s board of directors. “We would have loved to have paved the whole thing, but we did that with a (REACH) grant and it was cost prohibitive to do the whole thing with paving. So half of it is basically gravel and the other half is paved.”

LebTown reported in January that Penn State Health provided a $150,000 REACH (Resilient Engaged Active Community Health) grant to the city for this and several other projects within Coleman Memorial Park.

Read More: Lebanon City Council hears updates on Coleman Memorial Park project

Although the trail isn’t completely paved, Morales said it would be nice to do so in the future.

“In the future, if we could pick up more grant money, we’d look into paving the whole thing,” he said. “Again, the problem with the gravel that we’ve run into on the rail trail is that it can wash out. When it is paved, there is no washing out. But we are thrilled to have it done.”

Groh said this trail began as part of a Coleman Memorial Park master site plan, which included construction of additional trail connections based on different surveys of community members concerning what recreation amenities they wanted in the city.

“When we started this process, that was something we were looking at, you know, the rail trail is expanding places, so how can we connect recreation activities to other parks, other recreation activities,” she said. “Just like we did the connection here on 12th Street with the street markers between Veterans Memorial Walkway to the John E. Wengert Memorial Park, trying to make those connections between recreation facilities.”

Read More: Wengert Memorial Park dedicated in memory of dairyman, community leader

While Union Canal Tunnel Park has two connections to the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail along its southern border, Morales said he’d love to see the Coleman Memorial Park trail connect to LVRT.

“If it was me, I’d love to see it continue from 22nd down the north side of Tunnel Drive down 25th to the rail trail parking lot,” he said. “That would be great, but you do have the San Giorgio distribution center that sits between Union Canal Tunnel Park and the rail trail parking lot. 

“For now, however, the plan is to just get it to connect there at Union Canal Tunnel Park since the rail trail is already connected to that park with an east and west entrance on the south side of the park.”

Morales noted a separate goal would be to connect Coleman Memorial Park to West Lebanon’s park along Lehman Street, and added it’s a win-win for all concerned when community assets are connected.

“It’s a huge win for the parks and for the county to connect municipalities through pedestrian right-of-ways,” he said. Morales noted that while he would love to see more trails completed, including fully paving the new trail, the councilman in him knows that there’s a lot more to be done within Coleman Memorial Park.

“We have the (upcoming) splash pad, the skaters have a petition out for a skate park, and I don’t see that the paving of that piece will be a priority,” he added. “There are just too many other things we need to do, including looking at the old mini-golf building that we can remodel into a multi-purpose building. … That’s probably going to be the next big project at the park.”

In the meantime, Morales supports connecting as many parks and trails as possible within Lebanon County.

“The big thing here is that the more that we can connect parks, the more we will make us, we will make the county a regional asset,” he said. “It made so much sense to connect the rail trail to Union Canal Tunnel Park because they are connected and then Coleman Park is only three short blocks, but everyone understands that the more we connect our parks, it makes us look much more viable as a regional asset when we apply for grants.”