Lebanon Reporter

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July 23, 2009

The Farm Heritage Trail comes closer to Lebanon

By Rod Rose/The Lebanon Reporter

Lebanon — By fall, hikers and bicyclists may be able to travel from Lebanon to Colfax over the Farm Heritage Trail.

“We’ve made unbelievable progress” on converting an abandoned railroad right of way into the trail, Delmer Kinslow of Friends of Boone County Trails told the Boone County Commissioners.

Thanks to assistance from Denger Excavating, Lebanon, trees and brush have been removed from three miles of the path, and the surface graded, from Serum Plant Road to Hazelrigg Road, Kinslow said.

“We need to do signage; we need to put up barriers,” Kinslow said. The trail is meant only for walkers and bicyclists; ATVs are not allowed.

FBCT member Dan Hermann said the group has ordered a steel bridge that will carry the trail over County Road 400 North. Money for the bridge and installation are in place, he said.

Friends of Boone County Trails is now purchasing a three-mile section from Hazelrigg to Dead End Road, on Lebanon’s west side. That rail bed is owned by Lebanon Utilities.

“Hopefully by this fall we’ll have an open trail from Lebanon to Thorntown,” Kinslow said. The Keewasakee Trail links Thorntown to Colfax.

An environmental study is being done for a trail route from Lebanon to Zionsville, said Dawn Kroh, president of the landscape design company Green 3.

Kroh said funds for that and other studies on the Lebanon-Zionsville link are coming from a state trail enhancement grant originally issued for the Lebanon-Colfax leg of the Farm Heritage Trail.

“We may have to shift the route, because of resistance from property owners,” Kroh said.

Some farmers are using it for crops and other agriculture purposes. Kroh said FBCT hopes to have a “preferred” path for the trail in place by the end of the summer. The rail bed runs in a straight line from Lebanon to about three miles east-southeast of Whitestown; it curves to the southeast into Zionsville, where the roadbed was converted into a trail several years ago.

Hermann said the FBCT has contacted the Boone County Convention and Tourism Board about funding to advertise the trail.

Kinslow said the trail would promote healthier lifestyles, and may promote tourism in Boone County.

“It’s a linear park, is what it is,” he said.

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