Kosciusko County Department of Parks and Recreation Board Vice President Aggie Sweeney tells the rest of the board Thursday the first meeting of the trails master plan steering committee will be 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 26 in the Justice Building lower level meeting room. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Surveying work for the Chinworth Trail extension will be started within a few days, Triad Associates Project Site Manager John Nelson told the Kosciusko County Parks and Recreation Board Thursday, Feb. 15.

Nelson spoke to the surveyor just shortly before the board’s meeting Thursday to get an update.

“They have it in the schedule to start surveying the end of this week, early part of next week, and then it’ll be 30 days before we get drawings from them to start our work. We just started the process. It’s going to take off as soon as we get the survey,” he said.

At their Nov. 30 meeting, the board selected a bid from Triad Associates Inc. for the design and engineering work of the trail extension; and on Nov. 16 selected Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group for the master plan. The county set aside $750,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the design and build of the greenway extension and almost $80,000 for the master plan.

The town of Winona Lake also has about $30,000 in grant funding it has offered to go toward the master plan.

Board President Rob Bishop asked Nelson on Thursday what the survey results would look like.

“Basically, they’re getting both sides of the road, topography and everything at grade. Driveways, street intersections, trees, power poles, you name it – anything that’s in our way, and they’re going to fly it by drone to get the topography of it,” Nelson said.

Board member Mike Cusick asked if the survey extended to the right-of-way, and Nelson said it would. It’ll show property corners only, and not property lines, as they’re found.

“So, it’s going to be a while before we get that to where we can go meet with the (Kosciusko County) Highway Department, sit down with you guys about alignment. I know you guys are anxious. I’ve got to ask you guys to tap the brakes a little bit. There is a process. Surveying takes a while to collect the field data, then they’ve got to put it in the computer and they’ve got to draw their little pretty symbols and everything and confirm it to make sure it’s real. Then once they hand off to us, then we start laying alignment,” Nelson explained.

Hopefully by the board’s March 21 meeting, he said, they’ll have the survey and the design process can begin.

Board member Matt Metzger asked if there’s been a determination on which side of Old 30 the trail extension will be on.

“I think, right now, from what we’ve preliminarily looked at, we’re looking at the south side, but because of some comments that came up in a previous meeting … there’s some possibilities in spots – maybe it’s phase two and three that we’ll cross, but I think this first phase, we’ll probably be on the left side of the road,” Nelson said.

He looked at the other side of the river and told the board they probably didn’t want to go that way as it would require a lot of easements, property negotiations and a lot of costs.

“I think we stay in the right-of-way of Old 30 to get this first phase done … my gut tells me that’s what we’re going to do, as straight as we can,” Nelson said, adding that staying in the right-of-way will minimize the project’s expenses.

Bishop said he and Board Vice President Aggie Sweeney met with Highway Department Superintendent Steve Moriarty and he told them that crossing Old 30 would not be pleasant in terms of everything they would have to do to get permission to do that.

“You don’t want to do it at 55 mph. Maybe in Atwood, maybe in Etna Green we’ll have a crossing. Maybe it’s to our best interest to cross and stay on that north side through Atwood and then jump back, I don’t know. That’s why we’re looking at the whole right-of-way to assess which is the best alignment,” Nelson said.

Providing the rest of the board with an update on the master plan for blueways and greenways, Sweeney said the first meeting of the steering committee will be 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 26 in the Justice Building lower level meeting room.

She said the team from TSW has started preparations for the project and working with the parks board.

Metzger asked what the main feeling of that first steering committee meeting will be.

“What I understand with this first meeting — and they’re asking us to hold two hours – is really to do an overview of what this blueways/greenways master plan is all about, where are we going, starting to gather some information, building upon the work already done by Forward Kosciusko and our five-year parks master plan, and going from there,” Sweeney answered.

Cusick said the meeting will be the first time the steering committee will be together. “So I imagine it’s getting that group together, setting expectations, defining what the project is so we can move forward,” he said.

The meeting is open to the public.

Sweeney also confirmed two additional members of the steering committee – Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe and Winona Lake Town Manager Craig Allebach. They will join Cusick and Sweeney, as well as previously announced members Matt Sandy, Fred Helfrich, Rob Parker, Moriarty, Tim Metzger, Ryan Martin, Amanda Plank and Larry Plummer.

For the last part of their meeting Thursday, the board reviewed their goals as they previously set forth in developing the parks department’s and board’s master plan.

As part of that discussion, Georgia Tenney, of Pierceton, told the board, “My passion is to get this trail from Winona Lake they just put in there. That’s four miles to Pierceton. And I thought, ‘Oh, praise the Lord, it’s getting closer!’ So, I will be coming to your meetings just to hear, and also to the steering committee. As a public meeting, I may and Glenn (Hall), our board president, we may show up to that, too, just so Pierceton doesn’t fall through the cracks.”

Bishop agreed there weren’t a lot of miles between Pierceton and the trail in Winona Lake so Pierceton won’t be forgotten.

“There’s a lot of potential energy down in that area in Winona Lake,” Metzger stated. “There’s the new KCV bike pump track, bike park that’s going to be there and potentially there’s something big that’s going to be happening at Grace College – a big, multi-use building — so this really could be a place to draw people in from Pierceton, and a safe way to get there. Right now, there is no safe way.”

Cusick said it was one of the park board’s specific goals to have that trail extension out to Pierceton from Winona Lake.

Sweeney said they think the trails master plan process will take at least eight months. “And while there is a steering committee to help guide some of it, there will be multiple opportunities for public input. They just aren’t yet all defined and dates assigned and locations set,” she said.

TSW will have information available through a website so the public can learn more and stay updated.