City of Dothan Forever Wild Update

Matt Boster

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Posted by: Matt Boster
Date: Oct 08 2014 12:35 PM

Today we can announce that all of the properties required for the first phase of trail development
are owned by Forever Wild Land Trust of Alabama or the City of Dothan. This means that with state
grant assistance, trail construction can begin in the coming year. This will include a one mile
beginner loop at the Flowers Chapel Beaver Creek Property and eight additional miles of natural
“singletrack” trails on the Fortner Street side for more advanced enthusiasts. These natural trails
will be used for mountain biking, hiking and nature studies.

All property owners made valuable sacrifices to make this project happen. Property donations
included 58 acres from Wells Fargo Bank, 51 acres from City of Dothan, and 23 acres from Wiregrass
Investments. For the largest parcels, the owners, CWS, agreed to accept less per acre than they paid
for their property. Two of the owners, the McAllister’s and the Oakley’s agreed to sell a portion of
family property. They only agreed to sell this because they believed in the project’s importance to
the Dothan Area.

With all the pieces coming together now, the City of Dothan, in partnership with the newly formed
Southeast Alabama Mountainbikers, has scheduled its first trail building workshop on October 18
and 19. This workshop will serve to train trail volunteers to assist in building trails and represents
the first step in the trail development process. The workshop leader will be provided by the Southern
Off-Road Bicycling Association (SORBA) through our local chapter (S.A.M.).
For more information about the Trails Workshop call Kim Meeker at 615-3700.

Facts & History
After much research dating back to mid-2010, Dothan first presented a formal proposal to Forever
Wild of Alabama in May 2013 recommending the purchase of properties between Fortner Street and
Flowers Chapel Road. This proposal was first delivered to the Forever Wild Land Trust Board of
Trustee’s at the June 2013 quarterly meeting held at Dauphin Island by a delegation from the City of
Dothan that included: Mayor Mike Schmitz, Commissioners Taylor Barbaree and Hamp Baxley,
Leisure Service staff – Kim Meeker and Elston Jones, Scott Trott and Barry Mott representing
volunteering engineering firms, John Watson representing landowners, and Josh Blades, Chief of
Staff for Mike Hubbard, Speaker of the House.

In strong support behind the scenes were the City Manager, Mike West, Dothan City Commissioners
– James Reading, Amos Newsome, Critt Snellgrove, and Albert Kirkland, City Commissioners-elect,
John Ferguson and Kevin Dorsey, Representative Paul Lee, Houston County Commissioner, Mark
Culver, Representative Steve Clouse, Representative Donnie Chasteen, Representative Dexter
Grimsley, Speaker of the House, Mike Hubbard, and Governor Robert Bentley.

The project would involve a total of eight (8) parcels of property consisting of 387 acres. The catalyst
that caused the project to move forward, was the offer made to the Forever Wild Land Trust Board
by the City of Dothan of 132 acres for the project by donation (basically a third of the total project
acreage). This was created through 58 acres owned by Wells Fargo Bank, 51 acres owned by the
City of Dothan and 23 acres owned by Wiregrass Investments. The challenge to Forever Wild was to
purchase the remaining 255 acres in the project area. Additionally, the City of Dothan further agreed
to partner with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, State Lands Division to
manage the properties, and to build the trails system through obtaining a grant. This commitment
also served as a catalyst to the Forever Wild Land Trust’s Board to move forward with securing the
purchased acreage and accepting the donations offered by the City of Dothan and its partners.

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