Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter May 2007

Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter
May 2007

It’s Wednesday 16 May 2007. I was out on the Creekside Trail on Sunday; Mother's Day. The trail was alive with cyclists, walkers and runners. 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

Comprehensive Regional-Local Bikeway Plan started in the Miami Valley - A contract was signed recently between Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission (MVRPC), Alta Planning and Design and Burgess & Niple two bicycle planning firms. The kick-off meeting was held Tuesday 10 April 10, 2007, at the Miami Conservancy District building on Monument Avenue in downtown Dayton. The contract will require the contractors to build an inventory of all existing trails in the three county area; (Montgomery, Greene and Miami Counties) as well as build a data base of all planned and “vision trails” in the area. The result of the contract will be a set of data bases that contains all of the planning data for all three counties trail planning efforts. The contracts will also collect data for trails connecting from other counties.

The contactors will return to the Miami Valley 22 – 24 May 2007 to have three public involvement meetings.
- 22 May 2007 Tuesday 6:00 - 8:00 PM at the Beaver Creek Public Service Facility on N. Orchard Lane in Beavercreek.
- 23 May 2007 Wednesday 6:00 - 8:00 PM at the Cox Arboretum
- 03 June Sunday at 7:30 and 11:00 AM at the Troy High School (Troy Strawberry Festival)
If you have an idea for a great trail in your area attend the meeting in your county. The prime contractor, Alta Planning and Design, has established a website for data, trail maps and public input. MVRPC is the executive agent for this plan. The website also contains a survey that MVRPC and Alta Planning would like you to fill out at your convenience.
Data Collection Efforts for Trails Survey Starts - (See above) I attended one of the first data collection meetings that were held in Miami County at the Miami County Trails Task Force meeting Friday 11 May 2007 at the Troy Municipal Building (meetings open to public). The Task Force has been working very hard to get a South to North “backbone trail” into existence from Taylorsville MetroPark in Montgomery through all of Miami County and ending in Sydney (Shelby County). This trail is properly known as the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Miami County). The meeting was attended by representatives of every Township in Miami County as well as representatives of Shelby, Clark, and Darke counties.

Along with the effort to build the cross-county “backbone trail” that will run through Tipp City, Troy and Piqua on its way to Sydney there have been efforts started to build what are called “lateral trails” from the “backbone” to other locations in Miami and other counties. The trails under planning are:
- Piqua to Covington Trail – This planned trail would begin in Piqua and run West to Covington and eventually on to Bradford and farther West.
- Piqua to Fletcher Trail – This planned trail would start at the current end of the Piqua Activities Trail For Health (P.A.T.H.) and travel East to Fletcher and perhaps farther.
- Trail East through Bethel Township to Clark County – This proposed trail would connect to Charlestown Falls and run East to connect in Clark County.
- Trail East from Troy to Ludlow Falls and Laura – This proposed trail would run West form the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Miami County) near Troy and run West to Ludlow Falls and on to Laura. A link South from this proposed trail would connect to West Milton.
- New Carlisle to Troy Trail – This potential trail would follow the an old Interurban railroad bed Northwest from New Carlisle to connect to the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Miami County) somewhere near Troy.
- To see a map of all the proposed trails in Miami County see the Alta Planning website ( click on Draft Existing and Proposed Bikeways Map) [About 6 Mb Adobe File].

Website Changes and Improvements

New Iron Horse Trail Page – With the help and cooperation of Ms Carol Kennard, Director of the Centerville–Washington Park District, I have added another page to the information about the Iron Horse Trail. As many of you know, the Iron Horse Trail starts at the West end of the Creekside Recreation Trail and runs through Beavercreek and part of Kettering to a planned end at I675. Both the City of Kettering Parks and the Centerville – Washington Township Parks District are working to build what when completed will be a 9.2 mile connection through both Kettering and Centerville North to connect with the Miami Valley Trails System.

I asked Ms. Kennard about the status of the 1.93 miles of trail in Centerville and she told me that in 2007 the engineering plans for the trail were to be completed so that the Request For Proposal (RFP) can go out early in 2008. They plan to have that section of trail from I-675 to Hempstead Station Drive, which is the border between Centerville and Kettering, finished in 2008.

Mr. Michael Fleener, the director of the City of Kettering Parks Department, has been working on funding and property acquisition of the right of way within Kettering in order to carry the trail North from Hempstead Station Drive to State Farm Park, where the trail currently ends.
Drive Less Live More – This new website has a lot to recommend it. The campaign will be over this July 2007 and much of the technology on the website will be transferred to the Miami Conservancy District website that was responsible for the wonderful interactive map of the Great Miami River Recreation Trail. Eventually you’ll be able to drag and drop the ride out want to make and then print out the maps of your planned bicycle ride. I suggest strongly that you check out the tab that says “Plan a Bike Trip”

Photos Wanted Department

None this month

Did you Know Department?

Announcements of Upcoming Events

I’ve added several events to my Events Page recently. Take a look and you may be find something of interest to you.
Drive Less - Live More - This is a campaign to get Miami Valley drivers to either walk or ride their bike for shorter trips. They also recommend car pooling.
Out of Town Events - I've added some cycling events that are out of town to the Events Page for your reading pleasure

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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