Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter February 2007

Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter
February 2007

It’s Thursday 14 February 2007 and "Baby It's Cold Outside! Happy Valentine's Day as well!. There's six inches of snow on the ground and we are having a real Winter! Here is the news about trails in the Miami Valley. Please read on.

Trail Construction and Improvements.	Website Changes and Improvements
Photos Wanted Section	Did You Know Department
Announcements of Upcoming Cycling Events

Trail Construction and Improvements

Trail Plans in Indiana May Connect To Southwest Ohio - The Indiana Rails to Trails organization reported recently on their website www.indianatrails.org that Union City, Indiana had received an $80K grant to start development of a 1.5 mile trail through the city that would cross the state line into Ohio. The article stated:

“The Union City trail also appears to have potential for connections to nearby cities. To the southeast, an unused rail corridor to Greenville, Ohio (Darke County) is owned by a utility company that may be willing to sell.” Union City was the second choice for the grant…”

The article went on to say:
: “Trail advocates and planners say their first choice for locating the gateway was actually at the state line some 25 miles south of Union City, between Richmond and New Paris, where it would have been the site of a remarkable junction among three major trail routes: the National Road Heritage Trail, Cardinal Greenway and American Discovery Trail. These routes would then link with a planned trail eastward across Preble County and to the Miami Valley Trail Network near Dayton and Xenia, home of perhaps the nations' most thoroughly developed paved trail system of over 250 miles. However, faced with the apparent suddenness of the award, Wayne and Preble County commissioners stated they were "not ready" to make the commitment to the exact location of the gateway or to receive the $80k award.

If Indiana is planning to build gateways across the state line to Ohio, then efforts should be increased in Darke and Preble counties to connect to these trails. I understand that the Darke County Parks Department is working to acquire railbed to build a trail East from Greenville towards Bradford with a view to eventually connecting to the Piqua Activities Trail For Healthin Piqua. Perhaps they can also acquire railbed West of Greenville to connect to Union City, Indiana. In Preble County I know of no efforts underway to build multiuse trails. You can read the entire article at: http://www.indianatrails.org/news06_2.htm#union
FMCPT Gets Funds to Pave Trail East of downtown to Wilson Road - Madison County Trails got a boost in funding of $600K to pave the currently gravel trail East of download London. This 6.5 section of the Prairie Grass Trail is from Maple Street on the East side of London to Wilson Road. This brings the trail in Madison County to within 2 miles of the Franklin County border where the trail will be named the Camp Chase Rail Trail. The trail in Madison County was paved in crushed gravel in 2005 because of a lack of funding to finish the trail. With this construction which will start in Spring 2007 and is expected to be complete in the Fall of 2007 the Prairie Grass Trail will run from Xenia through Cedarville, South Charleston, London and 6.5 miles East of London on its way to Columbus. See Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails (FMCPT) Recent News Page as well.
Meeting held in Cincinnati 16 Jan 07 to discuss development of the Ohio River Trail - A meeting was held in Cincinnati on 17 January between the various interested parties to work towards planning to build the portion of the Ohio River Trail from Lunken Airport to downtown Cincinnati to meet at the Purple People Bridge across the Ohio River to Kentucky. As many of you know the Little Miami Scenic Trail was extended South from Milford through the City of Terrace Park to the Little Miami Golf Center in 2006. The Hamilton County Parks Department is working to extend this trail to Lunken Airport, which will be the trails terminus. Then the Ohio River trail will carry users West to Cincinnati and ultimately East, along the Ohio River to the Village of New Richmond. See also Hamilton County Parks Department

Website Changes and Improvements

Trails in Ohio List Updated - I have an alphabetical list of every trail (that I know of) in Ohio on one webpage. For ease in finding these trails I also have the same list broken down by Region of Ohio and County. Please See Counties and Regions in Ohio to see the map of Ohio. From there you'll choose a region of Ohio and from that page a county that you are interested in. This month I received new maps from the Ohio Department of Transportation. So I have updated all of the pages in this area with new maps for your reading pleasure. If you know of a trail in Ohio that I do not have on these pages, please let me know. I try to have this area of my website as up-to-date as possible. But I will accept help gratefully from my loyal readers.

Photos Wanted Department

None this month

Did you Know Department?

Did you know that we have over 268 miles of multi-use trail in the Miami Valley? Do you know that 206 miles of trail are connected? See my Miami Valley Trails Page for information on all of them and a chart that shows which trails connect. Click on Connected Trails in the Miami Valley to see the connectivity between them. You might also want to look at the website's Site Map also known as a Table of Contents to see all of the trails in the area. A Hint: On that page you'll see links to trail pages for trails that have not yet been built.

Announcements of Upcoming Events

Marching Miles For Miracle Kids - I have added a link to "Marching Miles for Miracle Kids" to the events page. The credit unions in the area will be marching to raise funds for your local children's hospital. It's a worthwhile fundraiser. Why not think about "Marching Miles" to help this fund raiser that starts 1 April 2007.

Also See Upcoming Events Page

Regards to all,

Thomas J. Recktenwalt
Webmaster
Miami Valley RailTrails
http://www.miamivalleytrails.org

If you find these newsletters and my Miami Valley RailTrails website of use to you, please pass the information on to your friends and neighbors who might enjoy our wonderful system of multi-use trails in Southwest Ohio. Then they can write me and get on the mailing list to get their own copy of this newsletter. Our trail system is wonderful for walking, running, in-line skating, birding, fishing and cycling and on some trails horseback riding. You see more wildlife from one of our trails than most anyplace else. All of my newsletters are posted to my website at the same time I send you this text version. The URL for your use is: http://www.miamivalleytrails.org/join_our_mailing_list.htm

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