They've talked about it for nearly 3 decades.

But today, the Owego River Walk project officially breaks ground.

As Action News reporter Gabe Osterhout tells us, it's more than a feel-good project for the Coolest Small Town in America, it's also a necessity.

With shovels in the ground, work on the 12-hundred foot Owego River Walk began.

The idea is to have a walk along the river connecting Draper Park and Mayor's Park.

"There's so many people that don't get out of Owego, people that don't have automobiles and can travel and I just think it'll be a nice place to come and walk and see the beauty," says Joan Gibbs of Owego.

While the River Walk will enhance the beauty of the area, it's also a necessity.

Because of recent flooding, part of the bank along the river is washing away, damaging sewer pipes the village just paid hundreds of thousand of dollars to fix.

This project will fix the erosion.

"It's going to bring back more money in the way it protects the sewer pipes, the sewer lines here. That's very, very important and needs to be done and that's one of the things that's going to be accomplished here so the cost of replacing those sewer lines in the future is going to be not necessary because they're going to be protected and secured," says Congressman Maurice Hinchey.

The new River Walk will also allow people a step back in time with decorations and words.

"It'll explain what was here before this was ever developed, before this was even parks 'cause there were actually buildings here on the site of Draper Park. There's going to be a lot of narrative interpretation of the history of Owego in general," says Michael Haas of Haas Landscape Architects.

The project is costing about 2.2 million dollars.

Most of the money has already been set aside from state and federal grants.

But 500 thousand is still needed to make sure the river walk gets completed.

In Owego, Gabe Osterhout, WBNG-TV Action News.

Congressman Hinchey says he hopes to get the rest of the money from federal funding.

Construction on the River Walk will last into November.

It should be finished early next spring.