Miami Valley RailTrails Newsletter
October 2004

Hello MVRT Members - It's 30 October 2004 and I have good news for you. If you remember my April 2004 Newsletter  I told you all about the construction and funding for trails in the Miami Valley. In my May 2004 Newsletter I added more details. Primarily what this newsletter reports is the completion of trails planned or announced in previous newsletters. I have not done this in the past but I think that each Fall I'll have a "Summary of Trail Construction Completed in the Miami Valley in 2004". That way you'll know what got done this year and what was delayed and hopefully the reason. And so here is our "Summary Report for 2004"

• Dedication of Simon Kenton Trail Phase III  On Sunday 17 October the final northern section of the Simon Kenton Trail was dedicated at the Urbana Station in downtown Urbana. The additional 5.2 miles is from State Route 55 where a tunnel was put under the road to the Urbana YMCA. This brings the trail up to 14.6 miles from the Buck Creek Trail to Urbana. Congratulations to the Simon Kenton Pathfinders and Nancy Lokai-Baldwin, their leader, who spent seven years getting this accomplished! I was able to take photos of the trail shortly before the dedication and added an additional page to the two already existing for the Simon Kenton Trail. Please see Simon Kenton Trail Page 3   I added a LOT of new pictures. If you don't have the time to ride (or experience) the trail before Winter, please look at my new page! Also see the Simon Kenton Pathfinders website. 
  
  

• Simon Kenton Trail Phase IV News  There is a lot more to relate where the Simon Kenton Trail now ends at the Buck Creek Trail. The Simon Kenton Trail Phase IV has been planned for some time. The plan is that the right-of-way South of the old railroad bridge that connects the trails be used to provide a better connection to the Little Miami Scenic Trail where it ends at I-70 in Clark County. Bids are going out 8 November 2004 and construction will start early in 2005 to add about 2.5 miles (my estimate) of additional trail South and then West to connect to Washington Street in the Southern part of downtown Springfield. I am told that the National Trail Parks and Recreation District are also acquiring other parcels of land so that sometime in the future the entire trail will be off road. 
  
  

• New Buck Creek Trail Extension Nears Completion  There is even more to relate about Clark County and the Buck Creek Trail! I was in Springfield recently and was shown the new 2.66 mile addition to the trail that will carry it to Buck Creek State Park. Mr. Jim Campbell, the Open Space Manager for the National Parks and Recreation District, gave me a "cook's tour" of the trail and I took a lot of pictures. The current trail ends at the old road bridge on Pumphouse Road in Old Reid Park. Construction is continuing and I am assured that the trail will be completed before Winter. 
  

  • The new section starts at the bridge and follows old park roads, (completely repaved) through the park and around one of the lakes (Northern Side) until it reaches Croft Road. The trail crosses at grade there and enters the Buck Creek State Park managed by the Corps of Engineers. The trail follows Croft Road for about a mile, crosses Eastman Blvd continues through the park and then crosses Eastman Blvd again. The trail follows the foot of Eastman Blvd crosses it a final time and the new trail segment ends at the swimming beach parking lot in Buck Creek State Park. 
    

  • Last year the Corps of Engineers built a .6 mile trail segment in the park that connects with the new trail near the Croft Road crossing at a parking lot. The trail goes through Buck Creek State Park and crosses the dam at C.J. Brown Lake. The two trail segments are planned to be connected where the new Buck Creek Trail crosses Eastman Blvd for the first time. There is a staircase nearby that allows you to walk up to the top of the dam. The staircase is planned to be modified to add bicycle rails to it so that cyclists can climb the stairs with their bicycles and ride the other section of the trail. 
    
    

• Contract for Beginning of "Great Connection Is Let  The Miami Conservancy District has awarded the contract to add approximately 3.2 miles of trail South from Crains Run MetroPark to the City of Franklin. The construction is planned to be complete in 2005. This trail segment is a part of what has been called "The Great Connection." (August 2005 The trail name has been changed to "Great Miami  River Recreational Trail in Warren and Butler Counties").  When finished 28 miles of trail will be added and the trail will connect Crains Run MetroPark with an existing trail in Hamilton. 
  
  

• Train Show 6 & 7 Nov Hara Arena  I've been asked to demonstrate and explain the trails in the Miami Valley at the upcoming National Model Railroad Association train show at Hara Arena in Dayton on 6 and 7 November 2004. The show will be from 11 AM to 5 PM on both Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $5 for a adults; children under 12 free. See their website:  Miami Valley Division of NMRA  I'll be in the Ballarena where all the train displays are. I've been able to get a lot of trail maps from Montgomery, Greene and Clark counties as well as maps of the Little Miami Scenic Trail from the Convention and Visitors Bureau of Warren County. (Thanks to all who provided maps and support!) I'll be telling the attendees of the train show about our wonderful, and growing, trail system. I'm supposed to have a computer and an Internet connection so that I can demo my website. If you have the time and you'd like to talk about our trails, see you at the Train Show!
  
  

• Kettering Trail planned extension  The Creekside Recreation Trail currently extends West to a T connection. If you turn right (North) you'll continue on the Creekside Recreation Trail to Eastwood MetroPark and then via the Mad River Recreation Trail to downtown Dayton. If you turn left (South) you will cross Linden Avenue in about 200 yards. The trail only extends one mile currently ending at Woodbine Avenue. The plan was to extend the trail another mile this year. That did not happen. So now Five Rivers MetroParks plans that in 2005 they will add approximately 1 mile of trail to connect to the one mile existing trail segment in the City of Kettering on Spaulding Rd that will carry the trail South towards Beavercreek. 
  
  

• Progress on the Xenia-Jamestown Connector  I was told that work is continuing on 6.5 miles of the 11-mile route from Xenia Station to Jamestown. This year nine bridges have been constructed and 1.1 miles of paving from Jamestown West to Hogeye Road completed. The plan is to pave all of the 6.5 miles of trail from Jamestown West to Jasper Road. That will leave a 4.5 mile section of trail to be built from Jasper Road West to the Xenia Station. One of the problems to overcome is to get round US 35 near Xenia. Current planning is to bore a 400-foot tunnel under US 35. Also yet to be completed is the trail construction West to Washington Street and then trail construction from there to Hill Street in Xenia where a new bridge over South Detroit Street will be constructed to Xenia Station. I am told that this bridge will serve both the Xenia-Jamestown Connector and also the Prairie Grass Trail to London. The new bridge will be about where the old railroad bridge across South Detroit Street was located. Efforts are underway to develop plans and secure funding to close this 4.5 mile gap. There is no estimate of a schedule to complete this trail segment. 
  
  More good News I was told that Greene County Parks and the City of Washington Court House have secured the right-of-way from Jamestown East 13.5 miles to Bush Road at Washington Court House. There is a missing piece 400 feet wide where US-35 cuts the trail right-of-way. A bridge will have to be constructed to cross US-35. There is a request to fund the estimated $5.5 million that will be required to complete the entire trail from Xenia Station to Washington Court House. This will include the 4.5 miles from the Station to Jasper Road and the 3.5 miles from Jamestown East to Washington Court House. This will allow the Xenia-Jamestown Connector to meet the Tri-County Triangle Trail  being built in Fayette, Highland and Ross counties.
  
  
  

• Prairie Grass Trail was dedicated to London June 2004 As you know (or should if you read my newsletters) an additional 10.4 miles of the Prairie Grass Trail was dedicated in London June 2004. This brings the trail from Xenia Station through Cedarville, South Charleston to London to 28.7 miles. The trail now ends at the Senior Citizens Center on Midway Street in the western part of London. It is planned to pave in crushed gravel a route to downtown London by the end of construction this year. The trail will be paved in 2005. However, the trail is not a completed dedicated rail-trail. Negotiations are ongoing with the Norfolk Southern Railroad to secure an easement for part of the trail. So for now the trail will continue East from Midway Street to Maple Street on a shared street basis. From Maple Street East to Wilson Road will be a dedicated RailTrail. This trail could not have been built without the help of the Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails (FMCPT)!

   

• Construction Starts on the Lebanon Countryside Trail  Construction started on what is called the Lebanon Countryside Trail in August 2004. The trail starts at the Little Miami Scenic Trail between Morrow and Loveland and will travel Northwest 8.2 miles to the city of Lebanon. What makes this trail possible is the railroad right-of-way from what was known as the "Middletown Junction" and the existing overhead span, two-section railroad bridge over the Little Miami Scenic Trail near and South of South Lebanon. The trail, which is fully funded will cost $2.25 million and will be completed sometime in 2005. 
  

• Miami Valley RailTrails ScreenSaver If you noticed a small change to the Home Page's navigation menu very recently that mentions a Miami Valley RailTrails ScreenSaver "Good For You!" If not, I'll repeat it here. I noticed recently that I have almost 900 images on this website! I also have thousands of photos of trails in the Miami Valley that I have taken over the past seven years that this website has been in existence. So, I thought that I would use some of those images to build a FREE Miami Valley RailTrails ScreenSaver! The ScreenSaver is a  "Thank You!" present to all of my faithful readers  and all of you who have made useful suggestions over the years. I'll have built a separate webpage to provide for the download of the file you'll need to load the ScreenSaver on your PC. The program works with Windows, 95, 98, ME, NT and 2000. I have not tested it with Windows XP but I expect it will work with it as well. 
  
  

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 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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