Mount Berry Trail Loop Officially Opens in Rome

A plan that began nearly 50 years ago reached fruition Tuesday with the official opening of the most recent section of the Mount Berry Trail.

The 6.5-mile loop now has signage naming it the AdventHealth Redmond ECO Greenway and is part of almost 15 miles of paved multi-use trails in Rome.

“We are honored to be associated with the ECO Greenway,” said AdventHealth Redmond President and CEO Isaac Sendros. “It’s all about connections. Connections between people and our community.”

The Mount Berry Trail was a special purpose local option sales tax project dedicated in 2020. However, the idea of a trail along the Oostanaula River started almost 50 years ago.

Floyd County Commissioner Wright Bagby and former Rome City Manager John Bennett, along with Rome Seed and Feed owner Robert Payne, were officers with the Rome Jaycees in the early 1970s when they laid the groundwork.

“We were basically bushwhacking along the Old River Road towards Chieftains one day when we realized this would make a great trail and park,” Bagby said. “Robert was a landscape architect; he had more vision for what the area could be than John and I.”

That land, which would become Ridge Ferry Park and part of the Mount Berry Trail, was in the process of being sold after the Celanese Fibers Plant was shut in 1977.

To focus attention on the area, and what it could mean for Rome, the Jaycees started organizing events around the river, including a flotilla.

“I was in the flotilla in the Oostanaula in 1979 or 1980,” said Debbie Anderson, who was walking the trail Tuesday. “The Jaycees were very active in the rivers and talked about trails even back then.”

Anderson and her best friend, Sherry Battle, are reaping the benefits of the work done all those years ago.

“We’re heavy trail users,” Battle said. “We use them all year. We’ll probably use the Mount Berry Trail more in the fall when it’s cooler.”

Bagby said the completed loop trail gives him a great sense of accomplishment.

“It gives you a really good feeling when something you’ve been working on for a long time comes to fruition,” Bagby said. “Even if it did take almost 50 years.”

The next step for the trail system, according to Julie Smith of the Rome-Floyd Planning Department, is to connect the Mount Berry trail to the Jackson Hill trail on the other side of Riverside Parkway.

“There’s currently an overpass over Burwell Creek,” Smith said. “We’re going to build a boardwalk over the creek connecting Ridge Ferry Park to the Jackson Hill trails and build a new duck pond.”

Smith said they are in the pre-engineering design phase, and that the total project would take two years. The 2023 SPLOST allocates $2 million for the project.

“We need to be very mindful to make sure we’re planning enough greenspaces,” Bagby said. “Growth is coming quickly and in huge chunks. And I worry we’re not thinking about how important (greenspaces) are to the next generation and the future of Rome.”