GREEN RIVER – The Trona Bridge connecting Expedition Island to Riverside Memorial Park and the Greenbelt was a project that unified the community, a former Green River Mayor said Thursday.

A 30th anniversary celebration of the bridge took place Thursday evening, celebrating the work that has taken place over three decades to build the Greenbelt, as well as showcasing the ongoing projects that will add to the pathway system. The bridge was installed in 1994.
Former mayor George Eckman, who served in the role from 1991 to 1994, said the bridge helped bring together a number of people and groups interested in improving the city. Eckman gives credit to a number of residents, including Greenbelt Task Force members John Freeman and Roger Moellendorf, bankers Regina Clark and Howard Baker, industry representatives Roger Harris and Charlie Yates, and others. 

Eckman said prior to the bridge’s installation in 1994 and the development of the Greenbelt, the 1980s were a tough period for the city. The mines had laid off workers after the historic economic boom the area saw a decade earlier.

“There wasn’t a lot of money,” Eckman said. 

He said city finances didn’t allow it to tackle a large number of projects and said its attention was focused on reworking infrastructure on the older side of town, which focused on water lines, sewer and some streets projects, as well as ensuring street work was going on in each of the city’s wards. However, as the 80s ended, things began to pick up in Green River, which included the development of the Greenbelt.

Eckman said the Greenbelt idea was outlined in a city plan and was dormant for about 15 years because the city lacked the funding to do it, saying it only developed as community volunteers bought into it. He said that enthusiasm, which he described as fueled by the city’s younger residents who wanted to improve the city, helped convince the Green River City Council to begin supporting the Greenbelt and projects associated with it. 

“This could be what really is the thing that brings Green River forward – the whole Greenbelt,” Eckman recalls thinking as support grew. “It was one of the great things that brought this community together.”

Freeman and Greenbelt Task Force member Tara Ferrell outlined the history of what led to getting the bridge built in an article they previously submitted to SweetwaterNOW. Eckman recalls one of the major challenges the task force overcame was establishing rights-of-way along the Green River and on lands the Greenbelt would pass through. He said former City Attorney Ford Bussart was adamant the city “do things the right way,” which resulted in the city, Greenbelt Task Force, Mountain Fuel, Pacific Power and Light, and Union Pacific in working together to establish areas the Greenbelt could utilize. He believes the project was something that made everyone involved look good, which helped gets companies like PP&L, the area’s trona mines, and others on board. Eckman said the city’s fiscal support for federal 90-10 matching grants that were aimed to install non-motorized pathways helped expand the Greenbelt and called the bridge itself as the crowning achievement for the Greenbelt system that ties the pathway system together.

As the Greenbelt Task Force continues building trails, with work currently underway on its Skyline Trail, Eckman said the Greenbelt system is the icing on the cake for the work that went into beautifying Green River, giving every resident the opportunity to enjoy outdoor recreation in the city.

“It wasn’t just for kids and cyclists … we got everyone involved.”