By David Slone
Times-Union
KOSCIUSKO COUNTY — Instead of going along the south side of West Old U.S. 30, the Chinworth (Lake City Greenway) trail extension will now go more along the north side.
The Kosciusko County Department of Parks and Recreation Board voted 4-0 at its meeting Thursday, June 20, on that change after hearing about safety and property concerns from the public, including Creighton Bros. As late as its May meeting, the plan was for the trail extension to go along the south side to Crazy Egg Café.
Additionally, the board will see if they can have the speed limit on Old 30 reduced.
At Thursday’s meeting, John Nelson, project site manager with Triad Associates Inc., the engineering hired for phase 1 of the trail extension project, provided the board members with “75% of the plans” for their review.
“We’re on the north side right now, starting at the (Chinworth) bridge and going to the west down to the Crazy Egg. What you see, I think we need to extend further west, just to get that turnaround past the two entrances that Crazy Egg has on the north right-of-way. There’s two beautiful trees at the end down there I think would be a perfect little setting for someone to put a picnic table up, or rest, before they turn around and go back to wherever they came from,” Nelson said.
He told the board he needed their direction on what type of crossing they wanted at the start of the extension. They are going to put in the plans for a bid item as an alternate to put up the flashing light that the Indiana Department of Transportation requires on state roads. He estimated it would cost at least $10,000 to add one.
“So we’ve got to figure out, after bidding, if we can add that in or not, but at a minimum I think you need a crosswalk and some signage stopping people before they step out into the pavement, at a minimum,” Nelson stated.
He said Kosciusko County Highway Department Superintendent Steve Moriarty would like to see the flashing light, if they can afford it, though it’s not required. Board President Rob Bishop said he liked the idea of having a crosswalk that was consistent with what’s done across the county as it would create less confusion with drivers.
If there’s no money in their budget for the crosswalk they want, Nelson said they may need to look at where they can trim their plans back to be able to afford it.
“Even putting this crosswalk in, it’s cheaper than staying on the south side because we have the retaining wall we’re going to have to build for that retaining pond. And, the potential lift station issue at the Creighton Bros. parking lot, isn’t that correct?” Bishop asked, which Nelson confirmed.
“By pushing it to the north side, it resolves the complaint that we’re getting from Crazy Egg not wanting their parking lot turned into a trailhead,” Nelson said.
The speed limit on Old 30 is 50 mph.
“So that’s something that, again, if we can get the commissioners to look at reducing that, it improves our situation at our crossing. If we can get it down to 40, I know at Crazy Egg and that curve, it’s a warning 40 and not a required 40,” Nelson said.
Bishop said he’s been surprised at the number of people who have told him that people are already walking and riding along Old 30 to begin with. “It’s a lot of speed for people using the road like that,” he stated.
Steve Foegley, a 42-year resident west of the Chinworth Bridge, said he was looking forward to the extension of the trail going west through his neighborhood, as were several of his neighbors. He said he’s strongly in favor of the extension, regardless of which side of the road it’ll be on.
“But there are some things I wanted to make sure I had the chance to communicate about keeping the trail as it was presented last month, which was on the south side of the road,” Foegley said. “The main thing was that the trail would stay on the same side of the road as the trailhead. Your parking, your bridge, all those facilities are on the south side. An extension that would cross at (CR) 350 (West) or go to the north side would require all of the trail itself to go to the north side of U.S. 30.”
He wanted to make sure that the board understood Old 30 was a highway, especially during the times the trail would be used.
“It’s not a county road. It’s a highway,” Foegley said, adding that the speed is exceeded regularly by vehicles. “There’s also, I would say, reckless traffic going through there as well, especially some of the traffic pulling out of West Haven Estates heading toward town.”
When you get down toward CR 350W, he said the intensity of the traffic is exponentially higher.
“Ideally, I love the original plan that kept it on the south side. If there has to be some compromise, and we have to get to the north side, I would encourage you to think about extending it south on the south side until you get west of the entrances to West Haven Estates because there’s where a lot of the traffic is coming in and turning, going both directions,” he stated.
Nelson listed the different reasons why the trail extension had to go on the north side, including limited space on the south side while the north side had more. Bishop said he would contact the sheriff to see if a speed radar could be put out there to collect data on speed on Old 30.
“I like the idea of slowing traffic down through there,” Bishop said.
Board member Matt Metzger said he thought the trail extension would ultimately benefit Creighton’s and Crazy Egg.
Ron Truex, Creighton Bros. chairman of the board, who was at the meeting with Mindy Truex, president of Creighton Bros., said, “We built (Crazy Egg) to be a community service. We wanted that restaurant to represent our company in the community. And then they go in and have breakfast, and it’s such a nice day, they just leave their car parked and go for a walk. Or they go down there and walk down to the bridge and back. You can say that won’t happen, or they’re just going to get that far, go across, use the restroom and leave. It could be a great deal for us or it could not be a great deal for us. So, our position is, why do we have to choose? I agree that crossing 30 is dangerous.”
The speed limit past the Creighton Bros. offices is about 45 mph, he thought, but people drive way beyond “45 or 55 or 65 and passing on the double yellow line every day.” Truex said if people cross 30 from the north side of the road to the south side, they were probably people who actually wanted to get to Crazy Egg.
One other thing that the board hadn’t talked about yet, Ron said, is that since it’s an east-west road, there’s a certain amount of time every morning and afternoon that visibility is not very good because the sun is either coming up or going down.
Cori Humes, Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors Bureau director, said she travels Old 30 every day and people are going 70 mph. If the county decides to reduce the speed on Old 30, she suggested they need to start talking about it now so people know they need to be slowing down.
After further discussion, Nelson asked the board for direction on whether they will be on the north or south side. “We’d like to draw it once, not have several variations. We already did it once as a preliminary set on the south side,” he said.
The board approved a motion for the trail extension to go along the north side of Old 30 with the caveat that they attempt to have the speed limit reduced to a level that will make it safe for people to cross Old 30.
Later, board Vice President Aggie Sweeney made a motion that, with the permission of the commissioners, the board requests for proposals for the design and engineering of phase 2 and phase 3 of the greenway extension. The motion was passed.
The board was granted $750,000 by the county in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the trail extension, but all the funds have to be encumbered by Dec. 31, 2024, and spent by Dec. 31, 2026.
