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Bike trail planners look to extend system

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By Nancy Bowman, Staff Writer 11:08 AM Thursday, May 21, 2009

CONCORD TWP., Miami County — As more sections of the north-south Miami County Bike Trail are completed, planners are looking to extensions east and west and to county parks.

In the meantime, they’re also hoping to finalize, by month’s end, the path for a key trail section north from Lytle Road at Troy to the area of the Eldean Covered Bridge over the Great Miami River between Troy and Piqua.

The Concord Twp. Park at the historic bridge served as the setting for a bike trail update last week from Bob Shook, chairman of the trail committee, recently renamed Miami County Trails Task Force; Jerry Eldred, county park district executive director; and Scott Myers, park district deputy director.

The trails task force has been responsible for completing sections outside the county’s cities. Those sections are being tied into trails built in Tipp City, Troy and Piqua.

Since the task force began its work in 2001, more than $5 million in grants have been received for the rural trails; and the park district, as promised in its last levy campaign, has spent $1.5 million to go along with the grants, Eldred said. He said he hopes the district’s next levy request — likely in 2010 — again will include dollars for more bikeway development.

Work last week included paving the three-mile trail section from Piqua south to the area of Peterson Road in the county. A grand opening date for that section is targeted for early June.

Proposals are due, also in early June, for engineering a bikeway bridge over the river at Peterson Road to property the park district recently purchased. That work is scheduled tentatively for 2013, but could be done sooner, Eldred said.

Bids were being received this week on the trail section from the parking lot at the baseball fields north of Eldean Road, through the Twin Arches Park north to an area under the Interstate 75 bridge. Work on that section, costing an estimated $700,000, is scheduled for completion later this year.

One of the most problematic sections for establishing a route has been from Troy to the Eldean bridge. Several proposed routes on the east and west side of the river have been rejected for various reasons, with the focus now on the west side of the river and west of County Road 25A.

“We’re gonna get it done,” Shook said.

To the south, construction should begin this summer on the section south of Tipp City’s Kyle Park to Ross Road and a tie-in with the Five Rivers trails in Montgomery County. Once that $1.7 million section is complete, riders will be able to go from the trail start off Lytle Road north of Troy into Montgomery County, and beyond.

North of Piqua, the task force has permission to take the trail through Johnston Farm. Work on that area will be pursued once plans are finalized for a trail in southern Shelby County and Lockington area, Shook said.

Other trail-related efforts:

• A group in Champaign County is working to bring a trail to the Miami County line, an effort Shook described as “in the very early stages.” Land for a portion of a lateral east from Piqua already is in the hands of the park district.

• A Covington area resident is working on establishing a path for a lateral to connect the Bradford-Versailles area with Greenville and beyond to Indiana.

• The task force will be working with the Miami Conservancy District and others on grants for kayak and canoe launches along the Great Miami and the Stillwater rivers.

• And, plans in the next two to three years include connecting bike trails to the county’s parks. “We want to make sure we are taking advantage of our natural resources and our county parks,” Shook said.

More information on bike trail efforts is available at www.miamivalleytrails. org.

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