By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FAIRFAX - A $294,766 bike trail is nearly complete as part of efforts to spruce up this eastern Hamilton County village.

The trail is one-eighth of a mile long and snakes along Murray Avenue from Settle Road in Mariemont to La Crosse Avenue in Madisonville.

It should open in about two weeks, once rules and regulations signs are posted, landscaping is planted and other final touches go in, Fairfax Mayor Ted Shannon said.

"People are using it even though it is not complete," Shannon said. Taylor Evans, 10, who lives nearby on Warren Avenue, already has biked and walked the trail.

"It's nice to have something in the community we can use that is not in the street where the kids can get hit," said Taylor's mother, Michelle Evans-Reynolds, 36. "Hopefully they will put some trees up around it."

Once a widening project is complete on Red Bank Road in December, operators of the Cincinnati Sports Club have agreed to allow the trail to run through their property from La Crosse Avenue to Red Bank Road, the mayor said.

Village leaders still are working on financing for that project, but hope to tie it into a proposed lifestyle center at the old Ford Motor Co. transmission plant, which is being torn down and cleaned up.

Residents who work at nearby companies along Virginia Avenue, such as Ohio Valley Flooring, also can use the trail to walk or bike to work.

The trail eventually will link to one planned to run from downtown Cincinnati to downtown Cleveland. Plans for Terrace Park's piece of the trail should be complete this summer.

The Ohio Department of Transportation built the Fairfax trail with a $245,834 state nature grant; the village contributed $48,932, Shannon said.

A new $23,000 sidewalk also runs along the south side of Murray Avenue from the Cincinnati Sports Club driveway to Virginia Avenue. The state's portion was $17,250, also from a nature grant; the village kicked in $5,750.

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E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com