Community Support The community has been involved in the process right from the beginning.  Several landowners, who live (or own land) on the river, between Heritage Park and Hwy 441, were the ones who originally organized to fight development along the river, to help protect the serenity and amazing views of nature provided by the river.  Together we decided that perhaps the best way to protect the river, and to make it available for all Oconee county citizens to enjoy, was to propose that this be a public access river walk, with specific controlled access points.  These landowners have signed a letter of intent to donate an easement along their river frontage to accommodate the development of the river walk.  Since the first proposal of the river walk we have had citizens write to us volunteering their services to help develop the river walk.  Some have expertise in river walk development and maintenance, others just have a desire to see this river walk become a reality and are willing to do what they can to make it happen.  Vo-Ag and other teachers have seen educational value to their students to be gained by identification of plant species along the river walk, so they could be identified for visitor’s information.  I have personally seen a presentation by one of these students whose project was the identification of tree species in a park, and then enter the information into a GPS system, which could also then be used to may locations or for visitor identification of the trees. Before we even proposed this River Walk concept to the Oconee County Board of Commissioners, we brought the idea to the Citizens Advisory Committee on Parks and Recreation and the Arts, as well as other groups concerned with Quality of Life issues in the County.  They all gave their full support to proceed.  We then contacted representatives of the County Parks and Recreation Department.  Again we received their overwhelming support for this project, and the inclusion of the river walk as part of the Heritage Park amenities.  We then proposed the concept to the Board of Commissioners.  They gave their approval for the Oconee County Citizens to lead the way in this endeavor.