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Keystone Trail Closure in Omaha: Blondo to Maple and Detours

Tue, 10 Nov 2026 19:49:13 GMT

The Keystone Trail closed between Blondo Street and Maple Street on October 15, and the City of Omaha lists it as closed through November 30. The underpasses at Blondo and Maple are closed too, which matters more than the closure itself. Those two underpasses let you cross both arterials without stopping for traffic.

This gap is one of four on the same trail this fall. The City of Omaha's October 2026 trails update gives the same reason for all four: "the NRD's Culvert Repair work," meaning the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District. These closures are one repair program spread along the creek. Once you see that, the fall comes down to a simple rule for Keystone. If you head north past Maple, the trail opens up. If you head south, the detours keep coming until December.

The closures have one cause

The city's page lists the trail as "Under Construction" and gives four culvert-repair windows. Here they are in order, north to south, with the underpass status the city lists for each.

Look at the last two rows together. The Mercy-to-Pine and Pine-to-Pacific segments touch at Pine, so the trail is effectively closed from Mercy Road to Pacific Street until the start of December. Of the four windows, the Blondo-to-Maple closure near Keystone is the shortest at about six weeks. It is also the one with no open underpass at either end.

The 72nd-to-Cass closure is the exception, and it is scheduled to lift on Saturday, October 31. "Scheduled" is the right word, for reasons the next section covers.

Getting around the Blondo-to-Maple gap

The city's detour sends you west, away from the creek, and onto streets. Here is the route as the city maps it:

Leave the trail at Blondo Street and head west to North 90th Street.
Go north on 90th toward Maple Street.
Turn east on Maple and follow it back to the trail, rejoining north of Maple.

The city says barricades and signage are in place, and it posts a closure map with the update. The detour adds street riding and arterial crossings to a stretch that normally has neither. That's the real cost for anyone pushing a stroller, walking a dog, or riding with kids. For a loop on foot with no road crossings, the simplest option through November 30 is to start on the north side of Maple.

Why the dates deserve a little slack

The listed dates are plans, and this trail has a recent record of plans slipping. In July, WOWT reported that the Keystone Trail near 72nd and Pacific had been blocked in the middle since the previous fall. Two separate government projects caused it. The city was rebuilding the section under the 72nd Street bridge, and the Papio NRD was doing federally mandated levee improvements a few hundred yards away.

WOWT reported that the city's contractors ran into five unforeseen problems. One was a storm sewer that wasn't on the engineering maps. Another was a drain from a private business that had to be reconfigured. Jake Lindner of Omaha Parks Development described the cycle to the station:

"Every time you come across one of these issues it takes a design, pricing and approval. Just delays after delays we found on this project."

John Winkler, general manager of the Papio NRD, told WOWT his crews had found two more pipes of unknown age the day before. He said then that the whole section should reopen by the end of October. The city's current update has since added NRD culvert work near Pacific and Pine that runs through December 1. Treat that July end-of-October estimate as history. The December dates are the current plan.

The other reason for slack is that the culverts are being repaired in the creek corridor itself. Work under a trail tends to turn up things nobody mapped. The city's October update also opens with a warning that recent floodwaters affected many parks and trails, and that temporary closures will stay in place until flooding recedes.

North of Maple is the open direction

When the city's detour ends, it puts you back on the Keystone Trail north of Maple. From there, the trail heads toward its northern start.

A September 2026 history of Omaha's trail system on Omaha Exploration describes the Keystone as starting at Cunningham Lake and running 27 miles along the Little Papillion Creek, then along the Big Papillion Creek after the two meet. Its southern end continues toward the Missouri River and American Heroes Park on the Bellevue Loop Trail. The same piece includes a 2026 photo of the trail south of Democracy Park.

That article explains why this trail draws such a big crowd and why closures on it ripple so far. The Keystone opened in 1990 as the first piece of what is now the "Paths of Discovery" system, and the author calls it the system's backbone, its longest trail and likely its busiest. These trails branch off it:

The Big Papio Trail, 10 miles from Hefflinger Park along the Big Papillion Creek
The South Omaha Trail, which connects the Keystone to the Field Club Trail, and the Field Club Trail ends at 38th and Leavenworth across from UNMC
The Boulevard Trail, about 3 miles to Metcalfe Park
The Sorensen Parkway Trail, about 5 miles to Fontenelle Boulevard
The West Papio Trail, which joins in Bellevue and continues through Millard, La Vista and Papillion

The same writer visited the new Girard Trail Connection, a half-mile path on the old Chicago and North Western Railroad line. It is the first step toward a trail that would link the Keystone Trail and Cunningham Lake to the Omaha Riverfront Trail. It's short for now. It's also the one change to the network this fall that adds trail instead of closing it.

South gets harder before it gets easier

If your usual ride goes south toward Aksarben or past Pacific, the culvert closures aren't the only problem. On October 10, the city also closed the Keystone Trail from Q Street to Harrison Street. Flash flooding left storm debris that made the trail unsafe at the railroad bridges. The city says it is working with BNSF and will post a timeline when it has one.

The suggested detour for that stretch goes west on Q Street, south on 72nd Street, and east on Washington Street. It then runs south through Seymour Smith Park on the Big Papio Trail and rejoins the Keystone at Harrison. The Q Street and Harrison Street underpasses remain open.

Riding south from Keystone this fall can mean leaving the trail at Blondo, again between Pacific and Mercy, and again between Q and Harrison. Only the middle closure has a firm end date of December 1. The Q-to-Harrison closure has no posted date at all.

The last Wednesdays on Military Avenue

Not everything near the closed stretch has stopped. Keystone Center at 7803 Military Ave. has hosted a weekly Wednesday cruise night from 4 to 9 p.m. An event listing for Keystone Center Cruise Night describes the season as April through October, weather permitting, and lists October 21 and October 28 as dates. By that schedule, Wednesday, October 28 was the last listed night of the season. The listing suggests checking with the organizer before you go, and that's good advice for anyone hoping to catch a late fall night if the weather holds.

The city lists the Blondo-to-Maple closure through November 30, and the city's trails page is the place to check whether that date and the December 1 dates to the south hold.

If you live near the Keystone Trail and want to know which nearby blocks have the easiest trail access once the underpasses reopen, that's a conversation we enjoy having. Reach out to SK & Ren and we'll talk through the streets and access points along the Little Papillion that fit how you use the trail.

Bennington's Soccer Field at Neumeyer Farm Is About to Get Four Neighbors

Tue, 10 Nov 2026 19:46:58 GMT

The first soccer field at Bennington Road and 156th Street took about five years, from the 2021 announcement to an April 2026 ribbon cutting. The next four are scheduled to take about ten months.

The gap between those two timelines explains how Neumeyer Farm Park got built. Construction was never the slow part. The money was, and much of it came from Bennington residents, a local employer, and youth sports clubs. That work is the reason the Phase 2 money arrived the way it did, and why Bennington Soccer Club should go into summer 2027 with five fields instead of one.

A farm at the corner most of town drives past

Neumeyer Farm Park covers 50 acres. Bennington Road runs along the north side, 156th Street along the east, and Kempten Creek Drive wraps the south and west. The Neumeyer family settled in Bennington in the late 1800s and farmed the land for generations, then donated part of the property to the city in 2020. In the 2021 announcement , Nancy Neumeyer said she wanted Neumeyer Farm to be a place where families make memories and residents connect. "I'm so glad it will continue to serve the community, for perpetuity," she said.

The city announced its plans in November 2021, and they were big. The early master plan called for seven multipurpose fields, close to 800 parking spaces, trails, a pavilion and great lawn, a farm-themed play area, and a splash pad that would turn into an ice rink in winter. Tennis courts, sand volleyball and a dog park were listed as possibilities, with a fieldhouse or recreation center as a long-term idea. The announcement also said the park would be built in phases, contingent on donations. WOWT put the price of that vision at $10 million when it was announced.

For a city Bennington's size, $10 million can't come out of the regular budget, so the project was going to move at the speed of fundraising.

How Phase 1 got paid for

The first money came from local groups. According to WOWT's 2021 report, Bennington Soccer Club and Bennington Youth Football had pledged a combined $300,000 toward the complex. The Bennington Community Foundation lists a $30,000 grant to the Neumeyer Farm Park & Athletic Complex in its 2021–2022 cycle. OneStaff Medical bought naming rights to the athletic complex, KETV reported .

Those commitments then drew in state money. More than 100 community members gave early donations, and together with the OneStaff Medical sponsorship they helped the project qualify for a $437,700 matching grant under Nebraska's Shovel-Ready Capital Recovery & Investment Act. A matching grant only pays when local money is already raised, so those neighbor donations determined whether the state's share came in at all.

When the Phase 1 construction announcement came in June 2023, the scope was much smaller than the 2021 plan: one full-size athletic field, a parking lot along Bennington Road, and a first stretch of walking and biking trail. The city gave Blade Masters a $970,000 contract for the work. The announcement predicted a playable field by mid-2024.

The ribbon was cut during a game

Phase 1 was officially finished on Friday, April 10, 2026. As Bennington Buzz described it, city leaders, Chamber of Commerce members and soccer families met at 5:30 p.m. for the ribbon cutting, and players were already in a live match on the new field while the ribbon was cut.

Mayor Clint Adams told Bennington Buzz that "this project represents more than just a new field," calling it "an investment in our kids, our families, and the future of recreation in our community." At the same event he said Phase 2 would go out to bid that summer.

That plan held, and the reason goes back two years.

Phase 2's money was already waiting

In April 2024, while Phase 1 was still under construction, the project announced a $2.1 million federal Community Project Funding grant for the next phase. The grant covers more athletic fields, more parking, and trails and greenspace across 10 acres. The grant announcement named Bennington Soccer Club as a project participant and pointed to the club's Spring Cup, a three-day tournament it said brings more than 1,300 athletes and coaches to Bennington each year.

Phase 1 had to raise its money before it could start. Phase 2 had its money set aside before Phase 1 was even finished, so the second phase is mostly a construction schedule. Here is the full sequence:

November 2021: The city announces Neumeyer Farm with a seven-field master plan.
June 2023: Blade Masters wins the $970,000 Phase 1 contract, backed by local donors and the state matching grant.
April 2024: The $2.1 million federal grant for Phase 2 is announced.
April 10, 2026: Phase 1 ribbon cutting.
September 14, 2026: The city council awards the Phase 2 contract.
July 2027: Estimated Phase 2 completion.

What September's vote bought

At its September 14 meeting, the Bennington City Council voted unanimously to give Blade Masters, Inc. a $1,623,369.88 base-bid contract for Neumeyer Farm Park Phase 2. The motion specifically included 8-foot sidewalks. The Douglas County Post-Gazette reported that four contractors bid and that Blade Masters came in lowest, against an original budget of about $2.1 million. That puts the winning bid almost $480,000 under budget. City officials told the Post-Gazette that part of the gap came from Blade Masters being a smaller contractor with less overhead. They also said the company had references from similar park projects in Omaha, and that it built Phase 1.

The Post-Gazette lists the Phase 2 scope as:

Four more sodded fields
Sidewalks
On-street parking
Benches and similar amenities

JEO Consulting Group will manage construction under a $65,000 contract amendment the council approved the same night. The contract allowed work to start as early as October, with completion estimated for July 2027.

Add it up and the park goes from one field to five by next summer, which is five of the seven fields sketched back in 2021.

Why the soccer club wanted more fields

When Phase 1 got underway, Bennington Soccer Club's president said more than 600 local kids were playing soccer each season. One field can't hold that many players, and at the ribbon cutting, club board president Justin Hughes told Bennington Buzz the expansion is about more than practice time:

"It allows us to host more games here and be a very attractive club for not only other teams in Nebraska, but especially as we try to grow our tournament."

Hughes also brought up the weather. "We all know that Nebraska weather can be suspect, so it gives us much more versatility," he said, adding that the space lets the club train and play through more of the year. If the club grows its tournament, visiting teams will use the on-street parking and sidewalks included in Phase 2.

What's still only a plan

Several features people connect with Neumeyer Farm aren't part of the contract the council just approved. In April 2026 reporting, restrooms and concessions were described as longer-term amenities, not Phase 2 work. The splash pad, playground and pavilion from the 2021 master plan aren't in the Phase 2 scope either, and the tennis courts, dog park and fieldhouse were only ever listed as possibilities or long-term ideas.

The trail along Big Papio Creek is a separate project on a later schedule. KMTV reported in 2024 that a planned trail would connect neighborhoods south of Bennington Road to downtown and to the youth sports complex, using a $2 million MAPA and federal grant, with construction starting in 2028. In August 2026, Bennington Buzz reported that the Heritage Trail segment would run from the south side of the 156th Street bridge, past the fire department and into the Heritage subdivision. Design and environmental work is set for 2027, with construction targeted for 2028 if grant funding comes through. Johns-Bohn Park is at 162nd Street and Bennington Road, and no trail route linking it to Neumeyer Farm has been funded.

The same donors are holding November events

The Bennington Community Foundation, which gave the park $30,000 early on, has two events in November. Blue Jeans and Blazers is Friday, November 20, at 6 p.m. at The Barn at Ackerhurst Dairy Farm, 15220 Military Road, with auctions, awards and music from Interstate Daydream. Santa Comes to Bennington is Sunday, November 29, from 1 to 3 p.m. at Bennington Elementary, with cocoa, carols and photos. Details for both are on the Foundation's events page .

If you're thinking about a home on Kempten Creek Drive or anywhere near Bennington Road and 156th, five fields and a tournament schedule will change what weekends sound like there. We're glad to walk you through which streets will feel the game-day traffic and which will mostly just get the view. Reach out to SK & Ren and let's talk.

Fremont's Christmas Walk Lasts One Saturday. Its Window Showdown Runs Until Dec. 18.

Tue, 10 Nov 2026 19:44:22 GMT

MainStreet of Fremont's 32nd Annual Christmas Walk falls on Saturday, Nov. 28, which is Small Business Saturday. On the same day, the 2026 Window Showdown opens to public voting. Downtown businesses enter decorated storefronts, and anyone who walks past can scan a code and vote for a favorite until Dec. 16. The Walk gets the crowd. The Showdown gives you nearly three weeks of reasons to come back.

For Nye Hawthorne households, here's how the Saturday works and how the weeks after it work.

Saturday runs in two halves

The MainStreet of Fremont event page lists the Walk from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. The activity schedule fills the afternoon and goes past that end time. The tree lighting at 5:30 p.m. falls between an afternoon block and an evening block.

Some of these overlap, and some don't. The wagon rides at 3rd & Main end at 3 p.m., hours before the evening carriages start at 6th & Main. These are two separate rides at two separate corners. If the wagon is what your kids want, plan for the early afternoon. MainStreet describes the evening carriages as a way to see Fremont "in a whole new magical way."

The other split matters for families. Letters to Santa at Gallery 92 runs from 1 to 7 p.m., but Santa himself doesn't arrive at Kiel's Barbershop until 6 p.m. A child can drop off a letter in the afternoon and meet Santa after dark. Or a family can do both in the one hour, 6 to 7 p.m., when the two overlap.

MainStreet says the list of events is subject to change as the date gets closer, and that more downtown activities are coming. Printed copies of the list will be at participating locations on the day. Check the schedule again the week of Thanksgiving.

The evening collects around 6th & Park

Look at where the activities sit and the day narrows as it goes. The afternoon spreads out, with wagon rides at 3rd & Main and the petting zoo at 6th & Park. After the 5:30 lighting, the evening events cluster closer together. Santa is at Kiel's Barbershop at 6th & Park, and the carriages load at 6th & Main.

The lighting connects the two halves. MainStreet calls it the moment the mayor lights the Christmas tree, "marking the official start to Fremont's holiday season." The schedule lists it as all 12 trees downtown at 5:30 p.m. That's 30 minutes before the evening activities start, so the trees are already lit by the time the carriages head out.

The three businesses hosting activities are useful to know in their own right, since each is open on other days too:

Heartland Thread Co. at 317 North Main, home of the photo booth, is a custom apparel and branding shop. It lists embroidery, screen printing, DTF, vinyl, hats, patches and engraving, according to its Fremont Area Chamber of Commerce listing .
Gallery 92, where the Letters to Santa station is, is Gallery 92 West , the gallery of the Fremont Area Art Association. The association is a nonprofit organized in 1960 to promote the appreciation and development of the visual arts.
Kiel's Barbershop at 6th & Park, Santa's spot for the evening, describes itself as an old-fashioned men's barber shop with a relaxed atmosphere and no appointments.

The rest of the day belongs to downtown businesses offering their own deals, treats and activities. MainStreet describes the Walk as a chance to find unique gifts and take advantage of offers available only during the event. The full list of participating shops will be on the printed event list.

The Walk is opening day for a contest

The Christmas Walk page lists one item with a date range instead of a time: "Window Showdown: Christmas Edition – Nov. 28 – Dec. 18." That's what extends the Walk past Saturday.

The Window Showdown page invites downtown businesses to redo their storefronts for 2026 and compete in two categories.

2D, painted windows. First place wins $150 plus a newsletter feature and social media advertising.
3D, merchandise, props and displays. First place wins the same: $150 plus a newsletter feature and social media advertising.
People's Choice. Every participating business is eligible. The winner gets a website banner and social media advertising.

The timeline is built around the Walk:

Nov. 20: Businesses sign up, submit a window photo and finish their windows
Nov. 28: Community voting opens during the Christmas Walk
Dec. 16: Voting closes
Dec. 18: Winners are announced

The finished-window deadline comes eight days before the Walk. So when the Saturday crowd comes downtown, the windows are already complete, and voting starts while the most people are walking past them.

How the People's Choice vote works

Voting happens on the sidewalk. MainStreet's instructions are to visit participating downtown businesses starting Nov. 28, look for the Window Showdown QR code, and scan it to vote for your favorite display. Voting closes Dec. 16.

The People's Choice award is the one decided by the public. It's also the only category every participating business is automatically in. The voting window runs 19 days, from the Saturday after Thanksgiving to the week before Christmas. That leaves time for a quieter weeknight walk, a lunch-hour loop or a second December trip with visiting family, with windows still lit and the vote still open.

If you own a business downtown, Nov. 20 is the date that matters for you. MainStreet's Christmas Walk page asks downtown businesses to sign up for the Showdown by then, and has a separate sign-up for businesses that want to take part in the Walk itself.

The weeks after the Walk

With voting open until Dec. 16, the Showdown overlaps with other dates on the season's calendar. The Visit Fremont December calendar lists these:

Dec. 5: The Dodge Winter Festival and the 48th Annual Parks and Rec Craft Show
Dec. 10 to 13: "A Country Christmas Carol"

All of them fall during the voting window. Check each listing for its venue before you plan a downtown stop around it.

John C. Fremont Park has also been in the middle of a project. At the Oct. 5 meeting of the Fremont Parks & Recreation Board, the minutes reported park lighting being installed, with hanging the lights as the last lighting task. The city and its engineering consultants were also discussing sidewalk issues in the park. The same minutes say the Creative Art Council sponsored a Dillon Bloom concert to celebrate the park renovations and sculpture walk. The concert had been moved from summer because of rain and the timing of the park's completion. As of that October meeting, work on the park was still finishing up.

Planning the Saturday around the vote

Since the Walk and the Showdown overlap, you can plan Nov. 28 around both:

Afternoon, 1 to 3 p.m.: Catch the wagon rides at 3rd & Main while they're running, then head toward 6th & Park for the petting zoo, which runs until 6 p.m.
Mid-afternoon: Stop for the photo booth at Heartland Thread Co. any time before 6 p.m., and the Letters to Santa table at Gallery 92 any time before 7 p.m.
5:30 p.m.: The tree lighting across downtown.
6 to 8 p.m.: Santa at Kiel's Barbershop and carriages at 6th & Main, both on 6th Street.
Any time after the windows catch your eye: Scan a QR code and vote, or hold off and vote on a later visit before Dec. 16.

The people who decide People's Choice are the ones who come downtown during those three weeks. Winners are announced Dec. 18.

Downtown Fremont's small businesses are a big reason this town feels like home, and Small Business Saturday is a good day to see that up close. If you're thinking about a home within easy reach of Main Street, or just want to talk about what's happening in Fremont, SK & Ren would love to hear from you. Work with SK & Ren.