BROOKVILLE — The third meeting of the three-county group creating the local Bicentennial Legacy Trail developed a north south/trail mostly on existing roads from the Cope Environmental Center near Centerville to Brookville Town Park. It is intended to serve as the backbone of the envisaged trail system throughout parts of Wayne, Union and Franklin counties.
The meeting was held Tuesday at the Franklin County EMS Center in Brookville. The newly outlined trail will be digitally mapped and presented to both Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Indiana Department of Transportation for advice and consent. The exact route of the trail is being kept under wraps until it has been filtered through and sanctioned by the state agencies mentioned above.
It will cut through both Brownsville and Liberty, making Union County representation on the ad hoc committee both active and engaged. The county had at least four representatives of the dozen or more at the table.
The trailhead is the Cope Environmental Center about a mile southeast of Centerville. This puts it south of the National Road (U.S. 40) and presents a problem eventually connecting the Bicentennial Trail to the Cardinal Greenway, which follows an old railroad bed from Richmond to Muncie and beyond.
Kevin McCurdy, who called the meeting, reported that “We’ve had our meeting with DNR.” This was about utilizing Brookville Lake property, which is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers but leased to operate by Indiana Department of Natural Resources. He said the trail group ran into trouble because of a Catch 22.
“We need a finalized plan to set in front of them, but we need information from them before we can give them a finalized plan,” he said. But, DNR couldn’t give them the information until they have a finalized plan.
So the meeting solved that conundrum by creating this backbone trail on existing roads except for a few places like in Liberty, where it will skirt a town park which is presently being created.
Bill Schirmer reported that on a private business deal he had been told by a Cincinnati realtor that if he lists a property and it's on a trail, he automatically adds $10,000. Schirmer is the chairman of Frankin County’s Economic Development Commission, and was instrumental in getting his county commissioners to pass a resolution declaring their support for the Bicentennial Legacy Trail.
“The only thing the commissioners said when they signed this was not to come back to us for money,” he said. Wayne County and Union County commissioners have been apprised of the trail creation effort, but have yet to be asked to endorse it, according to representatives at the meeting.
Melissa Browning, executive director of Union County Development Corp., reported that the town of Liberty has agreed to install trail signage on their existing roads when the time comes.
Reporting in general on what he has learned in talking with various public and private sector officials about the Bicentennial Legacy Trail, “It’s really the synergy that gets people excited,” said McCurdy.
No date was set for their next meeting, but it was generally agreed that they needed to begin working in a more “centralized” way.
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