By DAVE SCHULTZ
The road to a potential trail began Thursday evening at the Kingdom Academy.
Wells County Trails held a public meeting to discuss construction of a trail just short of a mile long for pedestrians and bicyclists. The trail would run along Ind. 124 east from Ind. 1/Main Street to the mobile home parks on Ind. 124.
The need for such a trail has been discussed for several years. Thursday night, however, was the first time residents of the community were brought together to comment on the need.
As of now, people who live east of the city have to walk on the highway to get to Bluffton businesses that are downtown or along Ind. 1. Having pedestrians, bicyclists, and even people in motorized wheelchairs on the surface of a state highway has never been an optimal situation.
The Wells County Trails organization called the meeting Thursday night and the group’s president, Mike Lautzenheiser, laid out the need and the challenges for such a project.
Lautzenheiser went over the challenges first — lack of a dedicated right of way and easements, a lack of level ground, the presences of utilities along the highway, and as he put it, “We have an existing busy road,” he said, adding later, “This is not a simple trail.”
On the other hand, he said, traffic counts place the traffic on Ind. 124 east of Bluffton at 6,400 vehicles a day. Of those vehicles, Lautzenheiser said, 7.3 percent are semi-tractors with trailers. That means an average of 467 trucks a day use the portion of highway from Main Street to the east city limits every day.
“You can see the reason why we have to separate pedestrians and people on bicycles from the traffic,” he told the approximately 25 people present.
Lautzenheiser said the cost of a trail along Ind. 124 could vary, but what he called “a rough estimate — very rough,” would put the price tag about between $2 million and $3 million.
Having said that, Lautzenheiser said there is not immediate timeline for the construction of a trail. He said 2023 and 2024 would be used to gather information and begin the process of making preliminary plans. A preliminary engineering plan and cost estimates will be set up; Lautzenheisersaid the cost of that would be around $15,000.
He said that if there was no plan presented, there would be no chance of acquiring grant money
Funding would have to come from a variety of sources. The city of Bluffton recently received more than $400,000 from the state to expand the Interurban Trail north to Lancaster Park through the state’s Next Level Trails program. Should that program continue to exist, Lautzenheiser said, it would certainly be one place to seek funding.
Those present Thursday night were asked to fill out a survey seeking input into the proposed trail — Are you in favor of it? Do you have any thoughts on funding? Woud you use the trail? Those were the questions raised, among others.
Lautzenheiser said the survey would soon be available on WellsCounntyTrails.org
daves@news-banner.com
