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Gift of 250K will complete Trail between Troy and Piqua

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By Nancy Bowman, Contrivbuting Writer 5:00 PM Thursday, October 29, 2009

TROY – A $250,000 gift from the Paul G. Duke Foundation will pay for the final section of the Great Miami River Recreational Trail between Troy and Piqua.

Announcements of the gift and the final route for the trail section between Lytle and Eldean roads were made Thursday, Oct. 29 during dedication of the two-mile trail section north from Eldean Road to the area of the Interstate 75 bridge over County Road 25A.

The late Paul Duke started a lawn business that would grow into ChemLawn Corporation along County Road 25A in the late 1960s. His daughter, Pat Robinson, and two foundation board members, Mark Hess and Ron Scott, attended Thursday’s trail section dedication and donation announcement.

The Paul Duke Memorial Trail will extend from the trail’s current end at Lytle Road and extend north across mostly county-owned property west of County Road 25A between Lytle and Eldean roads. The trail will cross 25A at the Eldean Road traffic light and tie into the trail section dedicated Thursday.

The route for that section of trail has been one of biggest challenges of the decade-long effort to build the recreational trail north-south along the Great Miami River through Miami County.

Bob Shook, a Concord Twp. resident who has chaired the trail task force, said the task force promised not to take the trail to areas where it was opposed, and kept its promise. When property owners on the river’s east side years ago said they didn’t want the trail, the location effort turned to the west side.

County Commissioner John “Bud” O’Brien said plenty of signs are planned along that trail route as it crosses driveways to county buildings including the Job and Family Services Department and the solid waste facility.

The trail section dedicated Thursday was paid for primarily with $1 million in federal dollars.

Bicyclists will be able to ride from Piqua south into Montgomery County and beyond once a trail section south of Tipp City’s Kyle Park, the Lytle Road-Eldean section and a trail piece between the terminus of the section dedicated Thursday and the trail south from Piqua to Peterson Road are complete. That work should be done in the next three years.

Contact this reporter at nancykburr@aol.com or (937) 339-4371.

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