CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Coonskin Park users aired their grievances over a proposed golf driving range and trail problems at a meeting with Kanawha County parks officials Wednesday.

Many of the people there complained about a lack of communication. They said trails were taken out and irrevocably changed with little notice or public commenting period.

Jeff Hutchinson, county parks director, said the driving range being put in at Coonskin has been discussed at county Parks Commission meetings for three years.

Joni Adams, a teacher and member of West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners, noted those meetings are at 9 a.m. during the week. "Most people work 9 to 5," she said.

People who use the park regularly, like Charleston residents Nancy Ward and Laura Phillips, did not know about the Parks Commission's actions until it was too late.

Trails were a primary concern discussed Wednesday. Three mudslides resulting from airport runway construction have made parts of Coonskin's trails impassable. Other parts of the trails were recently cleared for the new driving range.

The Pine Trail and Patriot Trail were widened with a bulldozer. These alterations were unrelated to the driving range.

The narrow trails are now muddy swaths, more conducive to all-terrain-vehicle riders than runners or mountain bikers who prefer single-lane trails, said Adams.

For 10 years, Adams brought her public school students to the Coonskin trails. With hand tools they tended the trails, cutting around hemlocks. They paid attention to flora and fauna and the natural contour of the land.

"Why waste my time volunteering to work on the trails if someone is going to come and bulldoze them?" asked Adams, holding a poster showing before and after photographs of the trails.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Coonskin Park users aired their grievances over a proposed golf driving range and trail problems at a meeting with Kanawha County parks officials Wednesday.

Many of the people there complained about a lack of communication. They said trails were taken out and irrevocably changed with little notice or public commenting period.

Jeff Hutchinson, county parks director, said the driving range being put in at Coonskin has been discussed at county Parks Commission meetings for three years.

Joni Adams, a teacher and member of West Virginia Mountain Trail Runners, noted those meetings are at 9 a.m. during the week. "Most people work 9 to 5," she said.

People who use the park regularly, like Charleston residents Nancy Ward and Laura Phillips, did not know about the Parks Commission's actions until it was too late.

Trails were a primary concern discussed Wednesday. Three mudslides resulting from airport runway construction have made parts of Coonskin's trails impassable. Other parts of the trails were recently cleared for the new driving range.

The Pine Trail and Patriot Trail were widened with a bulldozer. These alterations were unrelated to the driving range.

The narrow trails are now muddy swaths, more conducive to all-terrain-vehicle riders than runners or mountain bikers who prefer single-lane trails, said Adams.

For 10 years, Adams brought her public school students to the Coonskin trails. With hand tools they tended the trails, cutting around hemlocks. They paid attention to flora and fauna and the natural contour of the land.

"Why waste my time volunteering to work on the trails if someone is going to come and bulldoze them?" asked Adams, holding a poster showing before and after photographs of the trails.

Adams said commissioners did not inform the public of these activities either before or after they occurred.

Hutchinson said these trails were significantly widened for accessibility, so parks crews could come in to clear away dead trees.

"There's a miscommunication going on between what they consider a trail and what the parks board considers a trail," Hutchinson said after the meeting.

"What they consider a trail I would call a deer path. What I consider a trail is something where two or three people can walk abreast..."

A meeting will be held Wednesday at the Coonskin Clubhouse to create a comprehensive trail plan for Coonskin, following a Kanawha County Parks board meeting. Ken Dzaack, land manager for the Canaan Valley Institute, will be there to draft the plan and receive input. The meeting starts at 10 a.m and is open to the public.

To try to meet the needs of all park users, Hutchinson said Dzaack will help parks officials create a comprehensive trails plan for the park. Part of the plan would be to map all the park's trails, mark them and rate them.

"It will be done like ski trails," Hutchinson said. "It will be done by level of difficulty and accessibility."

In a city looking for more green space, Ward says the existing trails were just fine.

"There is a major disconnect between the efforts of the city to create more land trusts, green spaces, trails and walkways and the county commission," said Ward.

Ward wants to see a plan enacted where the land is not altered without adequately notifying the public. Throughout the project no signs were posted in Coonskin. "If a pool is closed, you put a sign on the pool," she said.

Reach Paula Kaufman at paula.kauf...@wvgazette.com or 348-1228.