Business opportunities arise for small towns along Great Allegheny Passage

Roll on.

From Maryland to just outside Pittsburgh, the Great Allegheny Passage cuts through forests and towns, passes over bridges and trestles and slides through tunnels.

Roll on.

It creates a park more than 130 miles long that is open for a day of meandering, an overnight stay with someone special or a long-distance challenge that demands fitness and planning.

At its end in Cumberland, Md., it links up with the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Towpath that provides a 180-mile route to Washington, D.C.

Roll on.

Places to stay and eat include campgrounds near one of Western Pennsylvania's most scenic waterfalls, a country inn with a top-notch restaurant or a loft that can be the headquarters of a 12-person trip.

"In years to come, this trail is going to be the heart of tourism in the area," says Pamela Kruse, owner of the Firefly Grill in Ohiopyle, Fayette County. "Not rafting. Not skiing. The trail."

The trail presents year-round, non-motorized use. It is perhaps best known as a bicycling route because it is a path free of cars through three states.

But it also can be a spot for a stroll or a cross-country ski journey. Much of it is situated in wooded near-wilderness, but when it comes close to residential areas, it becomes a neighborhood playground.

Folks are walking their dogs or with friends or with both. Runners are getting in their workouts, and fishermen dot the shores.

Michael Hudak, from North Huntingdon, Westmoreland County, says he and his wife use they trail four or five times a week. It has become such a part of their lives, they bought a tandem bike with this year's tax return, he says.

Roll on.

Finding what you want

From Cumberland, Md., to its end 132 miles away in McKeesport, the Great Allegheny Passage is bordered by an array of restaurants, hotels, beds-and-breakfasts and campgrounds.

It has created a wealth of opportunities for those using the trail in any fashion.

• The tiny town of Confluence, Somerset County, has five spots to eat and 10 places to stay.

• Kathy Bisko, program director of the Meyersdale Downtown Renaissance, boasts that Somerset County borough "has more of a variety of places to stay" than any other burg on the route. She points to the very basic Meyersdale Hostel, that provides bunk-like accommodations for trippers, to the Levi Deal Mansion, a dramatic B&B set to open in June.

• West Newton can become "the next Ohiopyle," says John Markle, owner of the Trail Side Cafe in the Westmoreland County borough. The cafe opened at the end of April after a fire ended its first life as a convenience store. Now, just yards from the trail, the site is a store and a restaurant.

• At Cedar Creek Park, just upriver from West Newton, Cedar Creek Station, a private business, offers a campground that can be used for free, manager Richard Senko says.

• In Frostburg, Md., John and Beth Sayler have turned what once was a gift shop into the Trail Inn and Trail Inn Cafe. It has six rooms on the first floor, two suites on the second and a loft that can accommodate a group of eight. They are adding a campsite terraced into the hillside above the inn that will offer 40 primitive camping areas and a shower facility, Beth Sayler says.

• Hotels and inns near the trail will pick up riders at a trailhead and haul them to their site, eliminating the need to crank out of the Yough River valley. Maryetta Zimmerman from the Fairway Inn in Smithton, Westmoreland County, says it isn't a steady business but happens often enough during the summer that her staff is ready to handle the request.

Getting ready to change

Development on the trail is happening in a variety of ways.

Places of business or properties constantly are being shaped to take advantage of the trail, says Bisko, of Meyersdale. She points to the Maple City Loft, a site than can handle groups as large as 12, as having emerged because of the trail.

Meyersdale is at a key spot on the trail; a convenient stop for through-trippers as well as those wanting to do a pleasant overnight from Maryland or farther west in Pennsylvania.

The Inn at Lenora's in Perryopolis grew from a restaurant to an accommodation for overnight guests five years ago, owner Lenora Palonder says. She says she "saw the big picture" created by the trail and added the inn to the restaurant, which had been there for 10 years.

Trail use has fueled a business that is "absolutely booming," says Debra Sanner, who owns the Rockwood Trail House in Somerset County with her husband, Lynn.

The boom prompted them to open a bike shop next to their B&B alongside the trail a summer ago, and its business is jumping, too.

Anna Marie Yakubisin opened the Rivers Edge Cafe in Confluence 18 years ago, when the trail from Ohiopyle to that town was the beginning of dreams for the Passage.

She says business has changed greatly.

In the late 1980s and early '90s, many riders made the trip from Ohiopyle, stopped for lunch and went home. Now there are fewer of them because riders "have a choice where they want to ride."

But there are more overnight visitors in the cafe's three guest rooms, she says, because bicyclists are doing longer journeys.

"I am all for the trail," Yakubisin says, even with the change in business."It is just a great thing."

Jim Greenbaum, manager of the Yough River Plaza in Ohiopyle, says he opened the motel 13 years ago to house clients of Whitewater Adventurers, the rafting firm he owns.

In 2006, only 8 percent of people staying in the motel were from river trips. He can't say the other 92 percent were trail users, because the site also gets fans of the nearby Fallingwater estate and those looking for a quiet stay away from home. Often, however, there is a dead giveaway cyclists are using the site.

"There are times we are completely full and there's not a car in the parking lot," he says.

Linda McKenna Boxx, executive director of the Allegheny Trail Alliance, believes 500,000 people will use the trail in one fashion or another this year.

The alliance, founded in 1995, is a coalition of trail organization in southwestern Pennsylvania and western Maryland. It has been the body behind fundraising, land acquisition and project planning.

Development of the trail has been a project that has used $60 million in federal, state and private funds. The final links to Cumberland were completed in late 2006. Boxx says it will take about $10 million to complete the trail to downtown Pittsburgh.

Becoming a trail town

Cathy McCollom sees planning happening in many towns and says 31 new businesses have developed because of the trail in Somerset County.

She is regional director of the Progress Fund, an organization formed to promote and assist trail-side business development.

George Sam, manager of the Main Street Program in West Newton, knows his town is far from being a recreational hotspot like Ohiopyle. But he says business owners in the Westmoreland County town are eager to deal with issues related to becoming a trail town.

One of the projects in West Newton is to create a visitors center and improve a span that links the trail and the town. It is called the Bridge to Tomorrow Project.

A state-assisted project will create a town square with a fountain, concert site and all-purpose building, Sam says.

Sam was at the center of a three-day state tourism conference focusing on the Laurel Highlands at the end of April. It culminated in a town tour to show potential investors possibilities connected to trail businesses.

Gary Santimyer, who owns a restaurant in Irwin, bought a home in West Newton in July 2001 and opened it as the Scarsdale Cottage Inn that October because of the trail.

"That's the reason it's there," he says, explaining he viewed the spot as a perfect first-night or last-night spot for bicyclists making multi-day trips.

But the final nine miles to Pittsburgh aren't finished, and that means the significance of West Newton has decreased, he says.

The B&B is up for sale, although Santimyer says his decision to sell was motivated by personal reasons.

Some shops find themselves having to deal with changes. Judy Pletcher is owner of the Rockwood Mill Shoppes and Opera House in the Somerset borough.

She sees herself as a year-round business; the site has an entertainment space, hair salon, tanning studio, fitness center, and antiques and gift shop.

But in the summer, when bicyclists are more active, she finds business surging at a coffee shop that also sells pizza and ice cream.

"Bikers can't take much with them, but they sure do eat," she says.

Bumps in the road

Sometimes, the trail creates challenges.

Michael Edwards and Dan Cocks moved to Connellsville from Washington, D.C., five years ago for what they saw as business potential.

They opened the Newmyer House, a B&B in a large mansion. They closed it last year when they learned of a Fayette County plan to build what they called a "halfway house" across the street.

As a result, there is no place for a tourist to stay in Connellsviille, one of the largest communities between McKeesport and Frostburg, Md. Edwards says Connellsville could offer many layover possibilities, and he sees the lack of accommodations as a missed opportunity.

Edwards and Cocks have held onto the business license for the Newmyer House in the event things change. They also are investigating possible renovations of the Western Pennsylvania Title & Trust Co. as a hotel and restaurant.

Mayor Judy Reed insists she sees the "wonderful opportunity" the trail presents and has put capitalizing on that opportunity at the top of her to-do list.

Reed opposes the location of the transitional home because it is "inappropriate" with efforts to develop business in the town.

Lisa Ferris-Kusniar, administrator of Fayette County Mental Health/Mental Retardation, says the site is not a "halfway house" but a home to help financially responsible people with disabilities.

There would be strict rules for living there, and residents would have to have jobs to pay into a rent and service fund.

Ferris-Kusniar does not know when it will open, but suggests it will be within a year.

Meanwhile, Edwards and Cocks have founded a Connellsville Cultural Trust to promote development of all kinds.

Edwards says he sometimes sees their efforts as "an uphill battle," but says they and others plan to continue because the trail presents great development possibilities.

"The town really needs to see where it is going," he says. "We don't want to be dealing with a missed opportunity."

It's all about change

Cathy McCollom calls Edwards a "change agent" and is trying to foster his attitude all along the trail.

At the other end, Cumberland, Md., Mayor Lee Fielder says he has found it necessary to be aggressive in helping business owners "understand what they are facing."

Late in 2006, he commented the town might not be ready for the business the trail will bring. The businesses are there, he says, but he had to work to convince shopkeepers of the need to change hours or days of operation.

"The weekends are important," he says. "If you get people here, you gotta feed them. I've been trying to convince people it is important to be open on Sunday and close on Monday."

Some business owners see benefits from the trail but aren't entirely optimistic.

Todd Berkey opened the Rock City Cafe in Rockwood in 2006 and touts it as having the "best burgers on the trail."

But, while he gets some hungry riders, he doesn't "think he's going to make a living out of it."

On the other hand, Richard Harris, director of development for Frostburg, says the town is trying to respond to the travelers the trail is bringing.

The town has hotels and restaurants and a tourist train connection to Cumberland. Hhe points to efforts to create better signage and to make streets more bike-friendly as important steps.

The trail is the centerpiece for the "economic success of downtown."

Ohiopyle's Kruse says success is beckoning.

"You just can't be set in your ways," she says.