CLEVELAND: Lots of ground was broken Monday for the northern end of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail.

Speakers at the ceremony wielded gold-plated shovels and turned over the first shovelfuls of dirt.

They were then joined by about 100 members of the public who brought their own shovels to participate in a community groundbreaking party.

Gary Storum, 65, of Bath Township, and Pat Smith, 64, of Twinsburg, drove to Cleveland and then parked their vehicle. They hopped on their bikes and pedaled to the ceremony.

Getting the trail built in Cleveland will be “really great,” said Storum, who brought a small hand shovel.

Both are involved in the Akron Bicycle Club that sponsors weekly rides on the completed sections of the Towpath Trail, Smith said.

Pictures of 500 more people with their shovels were affixed to a poster attached to a fence. The photographs stretched about 135 feet along Scranton Road in the industrial Flats area.

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