Trails

July 17, 2008 01:56 pm

— Saturday was a big day for backers of the Nickel Plate Trail.
Not only did they gather in Bunker Hill for the unveiling of a new bridge over Pipe Creek, they also had a visit from Gov. Mitch Daniels, who formally presented the Friends of the Nickel Plate Trail with a $900,000 grant to move forward with the project.
The trail organization had previously received a $250,000 grant from the Lilly Foundation that paid for paving south of Miami to Cassville.
The latest grant will be used to start development of the trail north of Peru and to finish two sections south of Peru. In the southern part of the trail, they money will be used for paving from 500S in Miami County to Bunker Hill and from Seventh Street to Wallick Road in Peru.
At this point, the trail along the old Nickel Plate railroad stretches from Cassville to Peru. It provides a safe place to hike, run or ride a bicycle.
Daniels noted last week that Nickel Plate was already the second largest trail in Indiana, behind Cardinal Greenway near Muncie. When complete, the trail will run from Rochester to Cassville.
The goal of the statewide trail project is to have a trail within 7 1/2 miles of every Hoosier.
Plans call for trails in Logansport eventually to be connected to both the Panhandle Pathway and the Nickel Plate Trail.
All of these trails have been helped along by grants such as the one Daniels handed out last week, but none of these projects would have been possible without the sweat of volunteers.
In this case, volunteers built a 200-foot bridge suspended by 56 trusses and 7 inches of concrete. It’s a solid structure. One volunteer suggested that you could drive a tank across it.
Volunteers have also cleared many of these pathways. They’ve picked up trash, and they’ve taken money out of their own pockets to pay for landscaping.
In other words, we owe a debt to the state officials and the private foundations that have supported this trail effort, but we owe an even greater debt to the volunteers whose blood, sweat and tears have made them a reality.
The statewide trail system is a grand vision that is worthy of support. Congratulations to everyone involved in achieving this latest milestone.