Campus trail will connect with Forest Service Trail

Executive Dean James Perey told the District Governing Board at the April 18 meeting that he is working with the Forest Service so that the trail developed on the Verde Campus can connect to the Forest Service trail adjacent the Campus.  It will become a part of the West Mingus Trail system in the Verde Valley and a trail head may be located at the Campus.

Perey said the Verde trail will have access by pedestrians and bicyclists. However, there is no equine to be allowed on the trail.

Dean Perey’s short report to the Governing Board can be viewed below.

After more than 20 years of trying, nature trail on Verde campus remains primitive and undeveloped

The difference in treatment afforded the Verde campus in Clarkdale  and the Prescott campus comes sharply into focus when you compare the effort at developing a nature trail on the two 100 acre facilities.

Photo from YCC web page advertising nature trail on Prescott campus.

Planning for a nature trail on the Prescott campus began in 2004. Prescott administrators moved ahead with the plans and today the nature trail is fully developed and is 1.5 miles long.

Discarded hoses on what is left of failed trail effort on Verde campus in 2007.

In contrast, the idea of a nature trail began on the 100 acre Verde campus eleven years earlier, in 1993, with a grant to a Verde faculty member. Despite this start, after twenty years of student, faculty, and Verde community members  efforts to persuade the Community College administrators in Prescott, the Verde trail remains as it is described in the ten year $119 million dollar development plan: It is  “poorly defined” and has “safety concerns.” Nothing in the 10 year proposal addresses this fundamental need expressed by the community over a 20 year period as a part of the development of the Verde campus.  Read More→