Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter
March 2010

Dear Friends: It’s Monday 15 March  2010. I have some trail news for you. Please read on for news of the Miami Valley. 

Trail Construction and Improvements

• Iron Horse Trail Receives More Funding -  The Iron Horse Trail (tentatively called the Southeast Bikeway Corridor now runs through Beavercreek into Kettering. There is also a section in Centerville from I-675 through Iron Horse Park to Stroop Road. The trail has received additional funding for construction in 2012 from Kettering Northwest along the old railbed to the Southeast corner of the University of Dayton. The City of Dayton will build from U.D. Southeast to Jane Newcom Park. From there the City of Kettering will employ the railbed and city streets to bring the trail South to its current end at Stroup and Wilmington Pike. Please see the current (03/05/10) Ken McCall article; titled: Missing link in region’s bikeway on track for 2012 construction by:  Clicking Here.
  
  To see the funding document dated 10 March 2010, from MVRPC’s: CY2009 Recommended Congestion Mitigation / Air Quality (CMAQ) Projects  please: Click Here
  
  

• Little Miami Scenic Trail Progress - Last month, the Hamilton County Park District held a public meeting about plans for extending the Little Miami Scenic Trail, 2.8 miles from its current end at the Little Miami Golf Center, south to Clough Pike. This section will go around the north side of Newtown, through Clear Creek Park, then parallel SR 32, Batavia Road, to a point near its intersection with Clough Pike. This will be added to the current length of 78 miles, the longest paved trail in the United States. Federal funding of $1,944,000 was provided by OKI through its Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program. This will be matched by the Park District and Anderson Township for a total project cost of $2,430,000. The environmental documentation and design plans will be completed in 2010, right-of-way acquisition will begin in 2011, and construction should start in 2013. From Clough Pike, the trail is planned to continue south, crossing Beechmont Ave., and along the east side of the Little Miami River to Magrish Preserve where it will cross the Little Miami River on the Kellogg Ave. bridge and connect with the Lunken Airport loop trail. (Source: OKI)
  
  

• Prairie Grass Trail (AKA Ohio To Erie Trail) Construction News – There has been a blockage in the construction East of Wilson Road, as follows. The latest news received from Metro Parks (in Columbus) is that they have cleared the section from Lilly Chapel to Olmstead and plan to pave that section this year (2010). There is an issue with Wilson Road East to Lilly Chapel (W. Jefferson - Kiousville Road Route 22). The Camp Chase Industrial Railroad didn't own the property all the way West to Wilson Road (like they thought they did). After Metro Parks did the legal work and found out the true owners, it seems that this company (the true owner) believes they have a section of right-of-way right in the middle of a gold mine of potential future businesses. MetroParks is working to: 1. negotiate with the rail owners of the property and 2. Failing that, work with the farmers in the area for an alternative route.
  
  

• Miami-2-Miami Latest Progress - The Miami-2-Miami Trail has been planned to link the Great Miami River Recreation Trail at Hamilton, Ohio East to meet with the Little Miami Scenic Trail at the bridge over the Little Miami that takes the Lebanon Countryside Trail to connect with the Little Miami Scenic Trail. Some progress has been made in recent years. I asked one of my contacts; Mr. John Heilman of OKI about the latest status of the trail and received the following. 

• Ohio River Trail News - A survey of the 4 mile segment of the Ohio River Trail was completed in 2009 by Hamilton County Park District and The Ohio River Way from downtown to Lunken Airport. The 50' wide corridor may have "pinch point". The survey was accomplished to find them and to explore where a permanent trail can be located which is compatible with rail. The Ohio River Way Development Committee was able to raise a total of $1.2 million of the $4 million of private sector funds needed to build the temporary hike/bike trail. For complete details of their Winter 2009/10 report see their Home Page here. 

Website Changes and Improvements

• Iron Horse Trail Gets Construction Funds - I have updated this page where it discusses the new trail route from Kettering Northwest along the old "Sewer Road" (the City of Dayton put a sewer line under the old rail bed some years ago.) There you can see my photos of the proposed route and maps that will show you the trail. I have also added a link to the MVRPC page where you can read the details about all of the trails that recently were voted funded. You can see the Adobe article Here. 
  
  

• Construction Delay on Prairie Grass Trail - Above, I discuss the problem with building the trail East from Wilson Road towards Columbus. I have updated the page with links that will get you more information on this topic. 
  
  

• Ohio River Trail Updates - I have updated the page with the latest status of the trail and also added a current map illustrating where the trail is planned to be built. 
  
  

• Approved Multi-Use Trail Projects - On this page I keep track of all funded trails in the Miami Valley. The page includes the source of funds. links to that funding organization, proposed route with explanations by me and estimated date of construction. That way I have in one location all of the funding information about a proposed trail. In the latest round of CMAQ funding six local trail projects received funding. They include two projects for the Iron Horse Trail (Cities of Dayton & Kettering), as well as trail construction in conjunction with road widening on Grange Hall Road and North Fairfield Road in Beavercreek. There is also funding for a project in Piqua and one in West Carrollton. Please see the page for details or Click Here 
  

Photos & Information Wanted Department

• None this month

Did you Know Department?

• Complete Streets Gains Ground – In a current Dayton Daily News article columnist, Ken McCall announced that, the City of Dayton had adopted a “Complete Streets” policy. It means “…From now on, whenever a street is scheduled to be built, rebuilt, resurfaced or repaired in the city of Dayton, traffic engineers and planners must consider pedestrians, bicyclists and bus riders as well as cars in their designs...” See Ken’s article Bicyclists, pedestrians part of street plan Click Here or above
  
  

• Google Maps Now Includes Bike Trails – Yes, that’s right. Recently Google has added to its “Google Maps” section. Just go to Google and select Maps (top left corner of the screen). It may explain how to get bicycling information on the page you get next. If it does, read all about it. You can even get turn by turn directions from a beginning location to an ending one using city streets. If you don’t see the directions, put “Dayton Ohio” in the box at the top of the screen next to the colored words “Google Maps”. You’ll be taken to a map of downtown Dayton. Next click on the “More” button just over the map and select in the dropdown list “Bicycling”. You’ll then see all of the developed trails in the Dayton area in Green. Then you can navigate from there. 
  
  

• Prairie Grass Trail History - I found out recently that when the Prairie Grass Trail (AKA Ohio-To-Erie Trail) was active as a railway it was part of the Little Miami Railroad. Just East of London was Florence Switch. This station provided passenger service directly to Columbus and Xenia, and was a quick method of travel before cars. I added this information to the location of the former village on my South Charlestown to London page. One other “tidbit" of information about Florence Switch is: "Florence Switch is most well known for its shipment of cattle via the railroad. It is my understanding, that during its "heyday" it competed with Chicago in its volume of business. There was side rails located there with several large holding pens.” Wow! Who Knew?
  

• Information about daily or multi-day rides in the Miami Valley – An out-of-state reader of my newsletter; let’s call her Joyce, wrote me in February about coming to the area to ride the trails again this Summer. She wrote that she had seen a list of  one day trips from a single hub. It turns out she was  talking about the Greene Trails Cycling Classic  (Thursday-Sunday, July 15-18, 2010) She suggested I add a link to it. I wrote back and  told her that I provide publicity to any trail-based activity like a bicycle ride but that I was unable to provide information for all of them. Each year I have information about the Greene Trails Cycling Classic in my newsletter under Announcements of Upcoming Events (See below) . I put information on the monthly newsletter page and I have a link to my Upcoming Events Page. 

  • Ohio Bicycle Events Calendar - One link that is permanent on the Events page is my link to Ohio Bicycle Events Calendar. The Ohio Bike Federation (OBF) maintains the calendar. They have information about every bicycling event in Ohio by date and by location. They have a printed calendar you can get and the web-based calendar is very good. too. I try to provide publicity to every organization that asks me for publicity. It is impossible to duplicate the work done by the OBF for every cycling event, so I don't try. I just link to their website.
    
    

• Five Rivers MetroParks Outdoor Summit – I gave a presentation about our “Bike Trails” at the event at the Wright State University’s Student Union on Saturday 6 March 2010. I was very gratified that all of the seats in the room were full and they had to go and get some more seats for the overflow crowd. I used a Power Point briefing that you can Read Here (Removed from Website - If you'd like a copy of the briefing write me an email). I’ll see you next year at Five Rivers MetroParks’ Sixth Annual Outdoor Summit. 
  
  
  
  
  

Announcements of Upcoming Events

See  Upcoming Events Area

Webpage of the Month 

• Approved Multi-Use Trail Projects - Since I talk about the fact that MVRPC has funded in March 2010 six local trail projects, I decided that this month's Webpage should be the Approved Multi-Use Trail Projects webpage. On it I have every source of funding for trails in the Miami Valley. I must confess that the page is more about me keeping track of the trail projects; the projects sponsor, the location of the project, what the project will accomplish, the funding and its source and the estimated date of construction. If you look at the page, you'll see the latest funding by MVRPC using CMAQ funds Here. However, for some of my readers are contractors wanted to do business with the town or city that will build a trail. The page provides for them as one contractor said: "It's a great summary of where the money is" (Emphasis added). But if you're interested it shows both the trails funded (and completed) as well as planned trails.  
  
  

 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 Miami Valley Trails System, the 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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