Indiana Department of Transportation recently notified the Syracuse-Wawasee Trail Committee it would not be receiving the $1.5 million grant it requested to put a trail segment on SR 13. This is the second time the trail committee has been turned down by INDOT for a grant application regarding the same segment of trail. The first time was nearly six years ago.

Mike Buhrt, chairman of the trail committee, said he is disappointed Syracuse was not awarded the grant. “I thought we had a good chance of getting it,” he said.

David Armstrong, local programs director for the Fort Wayne District of INDOT, said there were almost twice as many applications as funding available and selecting grant winners was a very competitive process. Attempts to talk to INDOT representatives who could provide more information were unsuccessful due to people being out of the office during a holiday week.

Buhrt said one concern INDOT officials had was that the SR 13 trail segment doesn’t connect to any existing trail. After the grant presentation, the town of Syracuse wrote a letter to INDOT stating it was committed to continuing to work with the Syracuse Trail Committee. Buhrt said the letter was sent so it should have been considered as part of the trail committee’s application.

Buhrt said the trail committee, which has not met officially since learning about the grant rejection, is still working out details on what the next steps may be on that section of trail. So far the committee has had very preliminary conversations with Wawasee Area Conservancy Foundation and the Department of Natural Resources about installing a boardwalk on the wetlands located on WACF land.