Page 5 - 2020 DEED

Huffman Dam recreation trail
5
MCD public lands here for you to enjoy
When engineer Arthur Morgan designed MCD’s flood protection system, he envisioned the dams would be places where families could drive to for a Sunday picnic.
And they did for years. But picnics have given way to more active uses at the dams and on the land behind the dams.
Providing you with recreation opportunities on MCD flood protection lands is a priority. MCD owns and maintains parks, including River Walk in Dayton, Miami Bend Park in West Carrollton, and East River Landing in Moraine.
Just last year, MCD built a 0.6-mile recreation trail on top of Huffman Dam to cycle, skate, run, or walk across. There’s also a kiosk at the south end of the trail with information about how the dam works and how the dam was built.
A Clean Ohio Trails grant provided nearly $244,000 for the new trail, with local funding from MCD and Five Rivers MetroParks.
Sections of the paved regional trail system, riverfront parks, festival and concert venues, boat ramps, unpaved pedestrian paths, and other amenities are on MCD land in cities where MCD provides flood protection. And more are on the way.
More fun to come
• Piqua’s Lock 9 Park improvements. (See Great Miami Riverway story on page 7)
• Montgomery County’s new Third Street Bridge with a connection to the trail system.
• Five River MetroParks’ master plans for its parks, including several on MCD land.
Cyclists, runners, and walkers are enjoying the new trail on top of Huffman Dam.
What MCD protects
The MCD flood protection system significantly reduces flood risk for:
More than 47,000 properties
in five counties
More than $7.3 billion worth of buildings and land
6 hospitals
9 water treatment plants
Nearly 60 schools and colleges
814 miles of public roads
14 wastewater treatment plants
1 million people who use all of these facilities
The system features five dry dams; 55 miles of levees in Piqua, Troy, Tipp City, Huber Heights, Dayton, Moraine, West Carrollton, Miam- isburg, Franklin, Middletown and Hamilton; improved channel; and thousands of acres of preserved floodplain.