Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter
April 2004

Hello MVRT Members - It's 21 April 2004 and I have trail construction news for you.

The Miami Valley received funding to close gaps in some trails and to extend others as follows:

• Montgomery County - Five Rivers MetroParks received a total of $4.9 million in Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) funds to accomplish the following:
  • Wolf Creek Recreation Trail  - Fill the 2.5 mile gap between the trail in downtown Dayton where it ends at Wesleyan MetroPark to Trotwood. When completed in 2008 the trail will run from downtown Dayton to Trotwood, Brookville and Verona. 
  • Great Miami River Recreation Trail -  Add 7.5 miles of trail to connect the trail in downtown Dayton at Triangle Park with the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Northern Segment) which now ends at Rip Rap Road. This will be accomplished in 2006 & 2007. 
  • Mad River Recreation Trail - Extend the trail 2.5 miles from its' current end at Eastwood MetroPark Northeast along a Norfolk Southern right of way to Huffman MetroPark to connect with the T-Connector starting in 2007. The T-Connector will connect the Mad River Recreation Trail to the existing Wright Brothers Bikeway that extends into Fairborn along Kaufmann Avenue. I understand that Five Rivers MetroParks has the opportunity to buy not just the 2.5 miles of railroad right of way from Norfolk Southern to Huffman MetroPark but can buy 15.1 miles of railbed. That would extend the trail when built to Enon. Five Rivers MetroParks has a grant application in for the $750K that it will take to buy the entire rail corridor. 
    
    
• Miami County - The Miami County Bikeway Task Force received $2.2 million to add to the Great Miami River Recreation Trail (Miami County). The trail will be extended in Monroe Twp. North and South of Tipp City. Tipp City will build a trail segment from Kyle Park to Canal Lock Park. Funds received last year will connect Phase I of the Great Miami River Recreation Trail from it's current end in Concord Twp South to Troy. 
  
  
• Clark County - Clark County is planned to extend three trails this year as follows:
  • Buck Creek Scenic Trail - East about 2 miles from Pumphouse Road through Old Reid Park across Croft Road to Robert Eastman Road then it follows the foot of the dam to the Buck Creek State Park beach parking lot.
  • Simon Kenton Trail Phase IV - The trail will be extended South 2 miles from the trail's current end following the old railroad right of way  at the Buck Creek Scenic Trail to connect to the Little Miami Scenic Trail .
  • Prairie Grass Trail (Part of the Ohio To Erie Trail) - The trail will be extended from South Charleston to London . Four miles of the trail extension will be in Clark County and 7 miles in Madison County. This will place the Ohio To Erie Trail almost to the city of Columbus.
    
    
• Champaign County 
  • Simon Kenton Trail Phase III - The trail will be extended North 5.2 miles from State Route 55 to end in the city of Urbana. The Simon Kenton Trail will then be complete. 
    
    
• Greene County
  • Ohio To Erie Trail  (my name) The trail from South Charleston to London is being managed by the Greene County Park District. The name of the 7 mile segment in Madison County has not been decided.
  • Xenia-Jamestown Connector - Construction of the bridges is going on now and the trail from Frank Seaman Park in Jamestown to at least Jasper Road will be built this summer. It should be open late autumn 2004.

I have updated the web pages with the construction news and have added a few new pictures as well as improved the navigation on the Home Page for trails in Miami County. I also added a page so that those who want to use our trails for horseback riding have the latest information on the subject. That's all I have for now. I hope you find this news as interesting as I do since it means that we will all have more trails soon to use in Miami Valley. 

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, pass the information on to your friends and neighbors who might enjoy our wonderful system of multi-use trails in Southwest Ohio. They are wonderful for walking, running, roller bladeing, birding and cycling and in some cases horseback riding . You see more wildlife from one of our trails. 
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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