Sheriff looking for ways to keep Big River Trail safe

Sheriff looking for ways to keep Big River Trail safe

Allen: ‘ We don’t want to get a bad reputation’

news@theeveningtimes.com

With the opening of the Big River Crossing bike and pedestrian trail across the Harahan Bridge just a month away, Crittenden County Sheriff Mike Allen is expressing concerns about safety and crime and how his department will patrol the area.

Allen told the Quorum Court that there is about a mile of land from the levee to the service road that is going to have to be patrolled but isn’t accessible by car.

“We’re worried about having to protect our citizens and people that travel into Crittenden County from the levee to the bridge,” Allen said.

Allen said millions of dollars have been spent on the trail but there haven’t been any discussions with law enforcement about security. “We know it’s coming. We know we are going to have to patrol that particular area,” Allen said. “This is something that has been sort of thrown in our lap about how we are going to keep people safe.”

On Oct. 22 the Harahan Bridge, a 100 year-old bridge that connects Memphis with West Memphis, will be reopened as Big River Crossing, a 10 mile biking and pedestrian trail linking the two downtowns. Big River Crossing will be the longest public pedestrian bridge across the Mississippi River and is expected to be a big draw for cyclists and ecotourism.

The route offers scenic views of the Chickasaw Bluffs, the M-shaped Hernando DeSoto Bridge, and the Memphis skyline, and will link up on the Arkansas side with the planned Delta River Park, a greenway and 17-mile levee trail in the low lying flood plain between the Mississippi River and the levees that protect West Memphis from flooding.

West Memphis recently completed the trail head from Harahan Landing to just south of Pancho’s Mexican restaurant and five paved parking spots.

Allen said the area along the levee and under the bridge was prone to criminal activity back in the 1980s and he doesn’t want to see the railroad bridge path have similar problems. “There is crime that is going to come if we aren’t proactive in that area,” Allen said. “We don’t want to get a bad reputation for something occurring. We know we are going to have to patrol that area to keep those people from Memphis that ride bikes, jog, or walk, safe.”

Allen said the only way he sees to patrol that area is to use an off-road all terrain vehicle, something which Memphis and Shelby County are already doing on its greenway.

“That land is not going to be accessible to anything other than an all terrain type vehicle,” Allen said. “I can’t see putting a deputy on a bicycle and them arresting somebody and then trying to get them out of there.”

Allen said he has $30,000 in his vehicle budget and asked permission to buy a Polaris 570 side-by-side four-wheeled ATV to patrol the area.

The vehicle is a crew cab and will be equipped with a radio and detention cage and will cost about $16,590.

Allen said they have received permission from Arkansas Highway Patrol to park the vehicle in a locked trailer in the parking lot at the weigh station along the service road.

“Our plan is to park the vehicle at that location and if they have an emergency or need an ambulance if somebody fell over on a bicycle or whatever, we could get medical personnel down there on the scene,” Allen said.

County Judge Woody Wheeless agreed that buying an ATV is the best solution.

“It (trail) is going to get used a lot,” Wheeless said.

“That’s the only avenue we have to get down there.”

The bridge itself has security cameras and will be locked at night.

By Mark Randall