Lebanon Reporter

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June 26, 2008

Plans extend trail south of Thorntown

By Rod Rose/The Lebanon Reporter

Lebanon — Construction could start in a month on a three-quarter-mile extension of the Farm Heritage Trail southeast of Thorntown.

The trail will go from Market Street in Thorntown to Serum Plant Road, generally following a long-abandoned Monon Railroad line.

“This is just going to raise the visibility of trail development in Boone County,” David Cook said at a Friends of Boone County Trails meeting Wednesday.

“This is going to happen real soon,” Cook said.

Melody Sweat, streams and trails coordinator for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, formally presented FBCT with $700,000 to buy another 299 acres of the FHT.

The FHT is one of the state’s priority trails, she said.

Gov. Mitch Daniels had planned to make more than 30 check presentations for rail/trail right of way purchases, but dropped those events after severe flooding in southern Indiana.

“We don’t want to disappoint the governor,” FBCT executive director Richard Stroup said.

Sweat also said the state will give Boone County title to four sections of the former Midland Railroad line that ran from Lebanon to Westfield. The land, totaling about 10 acres, is generally between Rosston and the Boone-Hamilton County line in Union Township.

Sweat said the state hopes the Boone County segment will eventually connect with the Midland Trace, a trail proposed between Noblesville, Westfield and Eagletown.

Planned to run from Lafayette to Zionsville through Colfax, Thorntown, Lebanon and Whitestown, the Farm Heritage Trail is one of several walking and biking paths proposed for Boone County.

A 1.5-mile section, known as the Keewasakee Trail, runs north from Church Street in Thorntown to a bridge over Sugar Creek.

The new section will start at the southern end of the Keewasakee Trail, go past a Witham Medical Services building, the Lions Club Shelter, veer into downtown Thorntown, pass by the Sugar Creek Arts Center, then return to the former railroad in the 500 block of South Front Street and end at Serum Plant Road.

Thorntown’s town board has donated services, including hauling away debris and striping pavement, to the project.

Friends of Boone County Trails raised nearly $1 million in 2006 to buy land along a 12-mile section of the FHT.

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