Text, Photos and Video
By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

ROCHESTER — Rochester’s Nickel Plate Trail extension project has officially kicked off.

The Fulton County Chamber of Commerce had a groundbreaking ceremony for the measure on Thursday, Nov. 7, which will stretch the trail approximately eight-tenths of a mile from its current end at a gazebo near Wabash Avenue to the trail running by the Round Barn Golf Club along Ninth Street.

The extension will travel from the gazebo to “west of the (railroad) tracks until it gets to 12th (Street) and then it will go down Park Street,” explained Rochester Mayor Trent Odell earlier this year.

For motor vehicles, Park Street will become a one-way street, with the extension going across Ninth Street, connecting to the other trail.

Odell spoke briefly at the ceremony by the gazebo.

“I personally didn’t think trails were a big deal, but when I started going to economic development meetings even last year, everyone was talking about quality of place and trails, so it was a much, much bigger deal than I ever thought it was,” he said. “I’m glad we can here soon start taking a few trees out and creating a path and getting this thing rolling.”

The project should be done in summer 2025. E&B Paving is completing the project, with its bid being $331,183.

Nickel Plate Trail Board Member and Communications Coordinator Dan McCarthy said the board was “just thrilled to see this trail get extended into Rochester.”

McCarthy said with the extension people who “are coming from maybe Kokomo or across country are going to be able to go right into Rochester and use those fantastic amenities that we have there.”

“The other thing about accessibility is the citizens of Rochester, they also would have to come down here to park to be able to use this trail, but now all of those people who live along the trail and all of those people who live along the Rochester pathway … they can just walk out their door and they also get to use the trail,” he said.

McCarthy thanked Odell and other leaders for applying for and getting an Indiana Department of Natural Resources grant to help pay for the trail extension.

Odell said after the ceremony that he thanked “all of the people who have been working for many years on this project.”