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B&W Gro unites Beverly, Waterford communities: Island project led to organization’s creation

Island project led to organization’s creation

(File Photo) A great blue heron stands tall as geese swim by Muskingum River Dam 4, which connects Beverly Island with the west side of the river, in August 2022.

BEVERLY — Development of a walking trail on an island unused for decades wasn’t the only result of a community meeting in the spring of 2023.

About 130 people attended the meetings, paid for by a federal Recreation Economy for Rural Communities grant, over the course of two days, Beverly Mayor Jim Ullman said. Most were residents of the village of approximately 1,233 people, but others came from Waterford Township, Lowell and elsewhere in Washington County.

“They wanted to see Beverly actually prosper because it benefits them,” Ullman said.

The meeting produced an idea to create a walking trail around the 11-acre Beverly Island, which is owned by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. From that work came the Beverly & Waterford Growth and Revitalization Organization, often simply referred to as B&W Gro.

“You have two communities that (are) attached by a bridge,” said Sam Skinner, president of the nonprofit organization. “You just try to enhance the area because it’s going to benefit both sides of the river.”

(File Photo) People can cross onto Beverly Island using the walkway on Beverly Lock No. 4, shown here in August 2022.

Skinner is also president of the Muskingum Valley Beverly-Waterford Chamber of Commerce. While that group works to promote and benefit the businesses in the community, he said, B&W Gro is focused more on quality of life features, making the community a better place for its residents and more enticing to visitors.

More than 60 people pitched in to clean up trash and debris that had accumulated over the years on the island in October 2023. Among them was Waterford Township Trustee Tim Rossiter.

“A lot of people in the Waterford area, they worked on the island,” he said.

The walking trail is heavily used, even during the winter, Ullman said. It was featured for a troll hunt event during the 2024 Rivers, Trails and Ales festival, with organizers expecting maybe 10 people to turn out. Ullman said more than 70 attended.

ODNR allows people to cross over to the island via the upper Muskingum River lock gates or the lower one if the upper is open. But if the gates are open or conditions are treacherous, like in the recent icy weather, they cannot be used.

(Photo provided by B&W Gro) B&W Gro hopes to make its Sweet Corn Festival an annual event.

“We wanted to get something more permanent,” Ullman said.

In 2024, the village received $250,000 from the state’s capital budget to construct a bridge to the island. Ullman said it would primarily be a pedestrian bridge though the hope is to make it wide enough for the Beverly Volunteer Fire Department’s side-by-side to traverse in case of an emergency.

B&W Gro spearheads work details to clear the trails on the island every spring of debris deposited by floodwaters, but that’s just one of their efforts, Ullman said.

The group is responsible for flower pots and planters along Fifth Street in Beverly. They also held the inaugural Sweet Corn Festival at Dodge Park in August and plan to bring it back each year on the Saturday following the Waterford Community Fair, Ullman said.

“It was almost shoulder to shoulder we had so many people up there,” Ullman said.

(Photo provided by B&W Gro) The B&W Gro organization held the inaugural B&W Sweet Corn Festival in August at Dodge Park in Beverly.

B&W Gro is just one example of the links between Beverly and Waterford that cross boundaries on a map.

“If the village would need something, we would help them out” and vice versa, Rossiter said.

Another project on the horizon for Beverly that will be of benefit and interest to the village, Waterford Township and beyond is the 1.3-mile multi-use trail along the Muskingum River with a marina at the end of Ferry Street. The village received $1.25 million, with no local match required, from the Appalachian Community Grant program last year for the project.

“We should be breaking ground probably April, May,” Ullman said.

Multiple projects were grouped together under the funding mechanism, and Beverly’s is part of a contract the state awarded that includes Ironton. The Ironton Lawrence Community Action organization is the lead entity on the project, but Beverly is in regular communication with them, as well as working with the Buckeye Hills Regional Council.

(Photo provided by B&W Gro) Volunteers work to clean up trails on the Beverly Island in May. The addition of walking trails on the island that had been unused for decades came out of the same 2023 meetings that also birthed the Beverly & Waterford Growth and Revitalization Organization, also known as B&W Gro.

The contract was awarded to the Ruhlin Company, which has done work on the locks and dams in Beverly and at McConnelsville.

“We were happy to see that they were awarded that because we’ve worked closely with them,” Ullman said.

The trail is the first step in a plan for a 20-mile trail connecting to Devola, Marietta and beyond, officials have said.

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