JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — About 15 years ago, Jacksonville gained control of an abandoned stretch of old CSX railroad.
The city is transforming most of it into the S-Line Rail Trail segment of the 30-mile-long multi-use path called the Emerald Trail.
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Jacksonville-based Swisher, which manufactures cigars, announced on Wednesday that it will donate $500,000 to the S-Line Rail Trail segment of the Emerald Trail.
“Swisher is proud to support the Emerald Trail, a transformative project that will help revitalize Downtown Jacksonville and be an important catalyst for social and economic development,” Swisher President & CEO Neil Kiely said in a news release. “As a family-owned company, we are honored to support programs and organizations like Groundwork Jacksonville that are making positive and generational impacts on the city we’ve called home for nearly a century.”
Four-point-eight miles of the Emerald Trail are called the S-Line, because it is in the shape of the letter “S.” But 1.3 miles of the S-Line remain incomplete, from 12th Street and Boulevard, to East 21st Street.
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“It needs to be maintained. I don’t see any garbage cans along it and you have broken glass, debris from the trees that falls,” Hereford Bean said.
Bean, a Jacksonville local, rides along the S-Line daily for exercise. He’s one of many people hoping that this $500,000 donation from Swisher to Groundwork Jacksonville will help complete the S-Line.
Groundwork Jacksonville is the city’s nonprofit aiming to improve local landscaping.
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“Our goal is that long-term residents get to stay and prosper,” Groundwork Jacksonville CEO Kay Ehas said, “to have each neighborhood develop an affordable housing and economic development plan for their neighborhood.”
When completed, the Emerald Trail will connect a handful of neighborhoods, parks, schools, restaurants, shopping and more.
To learn more about the Emerald Trail, click here.
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