Billings residents embrace the quality of life we enjoy in Big Sky Country and strive to enhance that quality every day. We want our communities to be safe. We want excellent schools and health care. We need vibrant businesses that offer good jobs, products, services and entertainment.
At Billings TrailNet, our quality-of-life mission is to raise awareness and encourage use of local trails â and raise funds for the city as it builds and maintains our urban trail system.
City leaders and residents have been wonderful advocates for trail projects. The opening of the new Skyline Trail atop the Rims is a recent example of our efforts to enrich the quality of life in our community. What a great project! And the paved path running alongside the soon-to-open Inner Belt Loop connecting Billings Heights with the West End is generating great excitement.
Kristi Drake
We thank our city leaders in government and business â and the residents they serve â for their steadfast and enlightened support.
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In a recent Billings TrailNet household survey, more than 44% of respondents reported using trails daily or weekly. Only 10% said they never use our urban trails.
The vast majority of users (83%), said they use the trails for walking, followed by dog walking (49%), mountain biking (27%) and recreating (22%). You can see those pooch walkers, runners, bikers and stroller-pushers on many trails around the city, from Riverfront Park to Lake Elmo State Park to Swords Park and along Shiloh Road.
When asked which trail improvement project they wanted the most, the top two projects mentioned were the addition of a side path on North 27th Street and the addition of a bike lane along the 5th Avenue North corridor.
Respondents also wanted to see new trails connecting Billings Heights to downtown and Zimmerman Park to Rimrock Road. The new Inner Belt Loop Trail and the proposed Stagecoach Trail from Rimrock Road up to Highway 3 will delight those respondents.
How are new trails funded? New standalone trails are not in the cityâs budget. The city seeks grants for these projects, which require matching funds (and Billings TrailNet provides up to 20% of that match). You can see an explainer video on the Billings TrailNet website here: https://www.billingstrailnet.org.
Once the City Council approves the grant and match, the project moves on to engineering and construction. Then we have a ribbon-cutting celebration and the community enjoys another new trail!
We appreciate and need your ongoing support, and encourage you to take advantage of the communityâs expanding trail system. See you on YOUR trails!
Kristi Drake has been Billings TrailNet executive director since 2012. More than 4,000 households received the recent survey, with 208 respondents recorded. Most respondents (83%) were not members of Billings TrailNet.
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