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A chance to be a local trailblazer |
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Tuesday, August 04 2009 |
Trail project seeking donations to receive matching grant and start project moving.
By Chris Meyers
Staff writer
After years of planning and working on the “nuts and bolts” of the project, a local organization dreaming of a paved trail for bikers, walkers and runners is working on the tough part — fund raising.
Dubbed “The 1st-Miler Campaign,” the fundraising drive’s goal is to get enough local pledges for donations to make the first phase of the Eel River Trail project eligible for nearly $200,000 in grant funds from the DEKKO Foundation and Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
To get the $190,000 in grants available for the project, the group needs to have $38,000 pledged locally by Aug. 26.
The money doesn’t have to be paid by then — just pledged.
Kim Bolinger, director of the capital projects campaign, said the pledges can be paid over a one-year period and are tax deductible.
The “1st-Milers Club” will consist of donors willing to make a minimum $1,000 donation to the project. There are currently four 1st-Milers who have made $1,000 donations, or more.
For their contributions, the people or organizations behind the donations will have their names engraved on tiles in the asphalt at the beginning of Phase I, which is slated to run from where the Blue River Trail ends at South Main Street to the southwest where it will end at the county farm ditch.
Anonymous engravings will also be an option for more modest donors.
“They have an opportunity to leave a legacy for future generations in the county,” Bolinger said.
The 1.4 miles of paved trail are just the first phase of the overall project, with the ultimate goal of ending the trail near Whitko High School.
“It’s a demonstration project to show people what it will be like,” Barry Yeakle, president of Friends of the Eel River Trail, said of Phase I.
Yeakle has been in contact with people in North Manchester about the possibility of a trail extension along the Eel River to North Manchester.
“All these trail groups are grass roots,” he said of the local effort and other successful trail projects across the state.
For the local effort though, Yeakle credited the cooperation of some local governments in getting more momentum for the project.
“The City of Columbia City and South Whitley have been very cooperative,” he said.
He and Bolinger feel the group still faces an uphill battle with the county commissioners, who have not voiced support for the project when the matter has come before them.
Regardless of government involvement, or lack thereof, the group is anxious to get started on Phase I, and hopes to meet its fundraising goal by the late-August deadline.
Aside from the engraved tiles on the trail, any “1st-Milers” who make the $1,000 minimum donation will get a special mention on the group’s Web site at www.eelrivertrail.com.
E-mail staff writer Chris Meyers at
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, August 05 2009 )
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