Great Rivers Greenway, City of St. Charles and City of St. Peters host community celebration at Schaefer Park

1.8 mile Centennial greenway expansion + 18.7 miles of connected trails!

Great Rivers Greenway, City of St. Charles and City of St. Peters hosted area residents to celebrate the expansion of the Centennial Greenway in St. Charles County. A community celebration was held Wednesday, May 24 from 6-7:30 p.m. at Schaefer Park. Guests enjoyed live music from Joe Metzka, dessert from Lilly’s food truck, and games courtesy of the McClay Branch Library.

“This new 1.8-mile greenway is pivotal—creating so many connections for people to walk, run, ride a bike or use a wheelchair to get to neighborhoods, parks, schools, businesses and other places they want to go,” said Susan Trautman, Great Rivers Greenway CEO. “It would not have been possible without the commitment and dedication of our partners at the cities of St. Charles and St. Peters. They worked alongside us to help plan, fund, build and maintain this critical new asset the community wanted.”

GRG worked with project partners and the local community to coordinate the addition of 1.8 miles to the Centennial Greenway from Old Highway 94 at Christy Avenue to Schaefer Park and the Spencer Creek Trail at McClay Road. Funding was sourced from Great Rivers Greenway’s designated local sales tax dollars along with federal funds awarded to the City of St. Peters and matching funds from the City of St. Charles.

“We are proud to have 27-plus miles of trails in St. Peters for our residents to enjoy, and we’re proud to partner with Great Rivers Greenway to connect our community’s trail system with a regional network of greenways,” said Len Pagano, mayor of St. Peters, Missouri. “People want to live in a community where they can walk and bike to more places. A network of greenway trails helps make our community and our region a place where people want to live, work and play. Thank you to our City of St. Peters staff and all our government project partners, including Great Rivers Greenway and the City of St. Charles, for making this new Centennial Greenway connection happen.”

This 1.8-mile connection is a critical link to a total of 18.7 miles of trails connected across both St. Charles and St. Louis counties. This larger network connects the St. Peters Rec Plex, the Katy Trail, Creve Coeur Park and the Maryland Heights Rec Plex via the Fee Fee Greenway. The connection to the Katy Trail State Park opens up an additional 237 miles of trail across the state, linking to hundreds of other greenways, parks and destinations.

“We are delighted to open this new greenway alongside our partners at Great Rivers Greenway and the City of St. Peters,” said Dan Borgmeyer, mayor of the City of St. Charles. “By working together, we have been able to exponentially increase the number of places our residents can connect to on foot and bike—neighborhoods, parks, recreation centers, schools and more. These connected trails are not only an asset for the residents nearby, but also the region at large.”