See More Projects Like This One

Deer Lodge, MT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Trails

Description: To give residents a new way to access Deer Lodge's commercial district, the Powell County Parks Board built a trail connector linking up a park in the town's residential area. To enable construction, the County worked with a landowner to secure a public access easement through his property. Then the County's road crew donated its time, labor and equipment to prepare the site, installing and relocating culverts. Additionally, the Board hired a contractor to build fencing along the easement, creating a border for the trail. Before, residents had to walk along a 45-mile-per-hour highway to reach businesses and the local medical center. But since construction, Deer Lodge has continued to improve its trail system, which the City has identified as an essential feature of its ongoing downtown revitalization efforts.

Raytown, MO

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Trails

Description: This project supported amenities for the new Rock Island Trail, which passes in front of the local Chamber of Commerce. The Raytown Chamber of Commerce Building Foundation installed two benches, a bike stand and a water fountain along the trail. They also hung a wall organizer in the building's lobby to display brochures featuring community information.

Bethel, VT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018

Project Category: Trails

Description: Many amenities in Bethel are only accessible by car. To encourage active transportation instead, the Town created a path for walking, biking and cross-country skiing. The multiuse trail runs from the town's elementary school to the town's new outdoor recreation area. Organizers hope the new path helps residents reach several upgraded recreational facilities nearby, including a new pool house and skate park. Spurred by the pathway's popularity, the Town is exploring ways to construct connector pathways to expand the trail network. By encouraging people to walk, organizers say the multiuse path will support Bethels economy, connecting pedestrians to local businesses.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

Bethlehem, NY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017

Project Category: Trails

Description: As part of its efforts to bring public art to the Albany County Helderberg-Hudson Rail Trail, the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy created a mural along the trail in the Town of Bethlehem. Project organizers chose a local artist from a pool of applicants to paint the mural, which depicts a surreal landscape and adorns a formerly graffitied wall. Since then, the Art on the Rail Trail (ART) initiative has installed several more murals, as well as a mini art gallery and arts programming. The trail is popular with pedestrians and cyclists in warm weather and cross-county skiers and snowshoe hikers in the winter.

Castleton-on-Hudson, NY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018

Project Category: Public space activation

Description: The Village of Castleton-on-Hudson regularly hosts a Repair Cafe event, where volunteers repaired any item brought to them, if possible. One problem: the event takes place on the second floor of a Village Hall, which has no elevator. This posed an accessibility issue -- locals often complained about climbing the building's difficult staircase. To solve this, the Village moved its Repair Cafe to Noyes Engine House. They also worked to activate a vacant lot next door, installing a community bulletin board, benches and planters onsite. The improvements support wider efforts to revitalize the village's downtown, with the goal of drawing more people to the central business district.

LEARN MORE AND STAY INFORMED

Find articles and resources about making communities more livable for people of all ages

people icon

Download or order free publications from AARP Livable Communities

download icon

Sign up for the free, weekly, award-winning AARP Livable Communities eNewsletter

mail icon

Don't see your community listed?

LEARN HOW IT CAN JOIN THE NETWORK

Connect with your AARP State Office

AARP has offices in all 50 states as well as in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

AARP New York State Office

750 Third Avenue
Floor 31
New York, NY 10017
United States

Phone: 866-227-7442
Fax: 212-644-6390
Email: [email protected]