by Erik Ault

     Every city is a work in progress. Cleveland has known many economic bumps and headwinds which can demoralize citizens and divert political focus. Many projects languish after years of frustration and hopelessness. But Tim Donovan and Tom Yablonsky saw the decline of industry along the Cuyahoga River valley as the opening of a new opportunity. For over thirty years, they have been chipping away at the completion of a trail connecting Cleveland to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. And now they can see the fruits of their labor being enjoyed by all.

     “Everything is people, and maybe some serendipity,” Tom said at a presentation at Metropolitan Coffee on June 28th. He gave a presentation with his business partner Tim Donovan to share with a packed room all the trials, frustrations, and moments of joy in fighting to complete Cleveland’s connecting trail.

     It started with Tom in 1985 as the North Cuyahoga Valley Corridor Inc, which would become Canalway Partners. Tom’s original idea was to link downtown with the flats. Tom was excited about using the river valley as an artery to join the two sides of Cleveland. The Cleveland Foundation was giving away $20,000 grants for civic development, so he wrote up a proposal and applied. It was denied. “At that point, we felt demoralized,” he shared. “But someone came to the rescue.”

     The idea caught the attention of Lance Buell, BP’s public affairs officer. Lance funded a study with the support of a couple of regional planning commissions called the “North Cuyahoga Valley Corridor Study.” This study laid out the incipient vision for what could become of the Cuyahoga Valley.

     Throughout the eighties, Tom and Canalway Partners’ other founder Jeff Lenartz continued to pursue this idea despite setbacks and lack of action. At one point, Tom sat at Jeff’s house wondering whether to fold their organization and let a larger, and potentially more efficient, non-profit organization take the reins. They had only $11 in the bank. And then they met Tim.

     Tom met Tim Donovan in 1986 at a fundraiser to beautify the warehouse district. Tim first chatted with Tom’s wife Mary and learned that he and Tom went to the same high school. So, Tim got to talking to Tom. who shared his grander vision for the entire river valley, not just the warehouse district. This excited Tim. Jeff took Tim out on a hike on the canal way to give him an idea of what could be. By 1991, Tim left his job in city hall to become the first full time executive director of Canalway Partners.

     But the path forward was not set in stone. They first explored the idea of turning it into a national park, but it did not meet the criteria. However, there was another option: a National Heritage Area. According to the National Parks Service, a National Heritage Area is a “place where natural, cultural, and historic resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally important landscape.” The Cuyahoga Valley definitely fit the bill. So, Tim and Tom produced the necessary studies and brought the proposal to the area’s congressional bipartisan representation: Ralph Regula and Tom Sawyer.

     In 1994, it was brought before the House of Representatives for a vote. Each National Heritage Area has to be individually approved by Congress. But it was filibustered by a representative from Louisiana. The bill was withdrawn. It seemed like another setback, but the bill did not include funding. In addition, it would have set up even more bureaucracy for Tim to deal with. They were already dealing with multiple jurisdictions trying to map this trail across numerous cities and counties and could not fathom dealing with even more on a federal level. The bill’s defeat did not seem so bitter. “Sometimes you win by losing,” Tim said. “We were lucky to not have that legislation go through.”

     So, in 1996, they tried again. This time it was passed- with money. The canal way was on the map and open for federal investment. Due to work spearheaded by Senator Portman, in 2022 this designation was reauthorized unanimously for another 15 years by the Senate.

     But there was another government employee who was paying attention to the Cuyahoga River. On September 11, 1997, President Clinton signed an executive order designating ten rivers as American Heritage Rivers which would receive special preservation and revitalization investment from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). When his advisors gave him a list of which ten rivers, President Clinton noticed the Cuyahoga was not chosen and told them to try again. They even forgot the Mississippi. Eventually the list settled which included the Cuyahoga. This allowed the canal way to become a national scenic byway.

     Now came the task of blazing a towpath trail from the Canal Basin Park to Harvard Avenue. Their initial strategy was to piecemeal it from Harvard, but there were too many environmental concerns, most notable being the old Harshaw Chemical plant which processed uranium for the Manhattan Project.

     Plans were stalled until Mitchell Schneider stepped in to buy part of the old steel mill. Tim read that Mitchell wanted to honor the heritage of the area, so on a whim, they approached him with the idea of the trail. He liked it so much he offered to pay for that section of trail himself with no direct subsidies. “The reason he refused subsidies is he really didn’t want the City of Cleveland to have any control over what he was doing,” Tim said.

     The team had to be just as creative to find sources of funding for the other sections of the trail. They applied for a grant through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) arguing that the Cuyahoga is a tributary to what is technically an inland sea, the Great Lakes. They applied for habitat restoration funds during the Obama administration when stimulus funds were delegated based on conservation efforts. Tim even once took Bob Taft for a bike ride on the trail when he was still governor to shore up his support during a budgetary session over which the governor has final say. It worked. “Our group, with Tim, were extremely creative in winning money,” Tom noted.

     Canalway Partners has to compete with other groups for funding, including partners who help administer the towpath, such as Cleveland Metroparks. What tips the scales in their favor is having public expression of support. “Citizens make our best advocates,” Tom underscored.

     To continue to involve the community and respect the history of the area, Tim and Tom plan to incorporate artwork along the way. Their next dream is to have a mural done by John Rivera-Resto, who has many murals around Cleveland, including the northwest corner of W. 25th and Clark. They would like a mural painted on the pylons at Hart Crane Memorial Park, which is the park just north of the Columbus Road bridge in the flats.

     There is still work to be done on the towpath trail, and Tim and Tom still have plans for Canal Basin Park. “We’re working on that the same way- a little bit at a time,” Tom declared. But the pair has accomplished much over the decades. Every inch of the trail was a small step toward an uncertain future. And now Canalway Partners has a full board and staff and many community partners to help keep the vision alive. After thirty-eight years, Tim and Tom, like all other Northeast Ohioans, can enjoy walking or biking through the reclaimed river valley with their families.

     The Cuyahoga River has been through a lot over the years. But by the example of unrelenting dedication set by Tim Donovan and Tom Yablonsky with the Canalway Partners, and with incremental improvement championed by the community, Cleveland can showcase to the nation how stewardship of its natural heritage can serve the people for generations.