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The Kosciusko County Park and Recreation Board received updates on the Accelerator Grant and the Chinworth Bridge Extension project at their regular meeting Thursday.
President Rob Bishop gave an update about the Accelerator Grant for the trail system.
Three weeks ago, Bishop received a letter from the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG) about the Accelerator Grant. During the Kosciusko County Council meeting on Nov. 13, Bishop had brought up to the council that this would be to fund the part of the trail that will stretch from Winona Lake to Pierceton, in which the council approved the grant application request.
Bishop stated they applied for the grant at the deadline Nov. 14. He did say that they received word that their application had been accepted, and they will hear in two weeks whether they received the grant or not.
“The Accelerator Grant is a pre-planning grant that will allow us to do the preliminary work to be ready to seek grants for design and construction of a larger trail. The target of this section of trail is Winona Lake to Pierceton,” stated Bishop.
This grant is a $20,000 grant that requires a $20,000 match.
“When we come out of this, we would need to seek the money for design and engineering,” Bishop remarked. Along with council’s approval, Bishop also received approval from the county commissioners.
The board retroactively approved the application of this grant.
Board member Troy Turley reported there has been a discussion of activities, and improvements to the grounds of the trail. Turley wants to get the Friends of the Trails committee up off the ground, along with finding who those members will be.
Turley also stated they want to try and break up the project into two portions by improving the area, also looking at how to do upkeep and annual maintenance. With the help of Vice President Aggie Sweeney, they created a bottoms-up budget that had several estimates for maintenance, and upkeep of the extension property. While they do not know what this type of project will cost, this budget will give them the estimates they can look back at when going over their 2026 budget.
Sweeney asked if they could update the timeline for submitting the letter of intent and full proposal. Turley did remark that he was not comfortable providing that yet.
John Nelson, from VS Engineering, gave an update on two pay applications that the board had asked for. The first was for the remaining bollards that were put in totaling $3,465, which was approved for sending the recommendation of payment to the commissioners. Nelson gave the keys for the bollards to Bishop, and made the statement that all board members could have at least two keys.
The second pay application was for the release of the retainage. Nelson stated that he did not see a reason to hold onto the retainage. Bishop stated that the commissioners wanted one of the board members and County Highway Superintendent Steve Moriarty to look over everything that has been done. This was approved by the board for payment. Nelson did state after getting a hold of Moriarity to see the work done, if there was anything that needed corrected, they would bring it up at the next commissioners meeting.
“It’s been a pleasure working with this board, and I hope that we’re fortunate enough to have another project with you; whether it be the next one, or another one in the future,” stated Nelson.
Kosciusko County Community Coordinator Amy Roe told the committee that because of all the county trail projects, she had to create a timeline for submission to the CAP committee. Roe and Zach Dripps, from MACOG, put all of those projects on a calendar to see what they could accomplish in a month-by-month basis.
“For the county projects … what I had followed up and shared with them was that we were looking at submitting the letter of intent,” Roe stated. “The letter of intent is not a grant application; it’s an inquiry and with the letter of support … it does indicate that you guys are allowed to do that.”
Roe also made connections with the county’s Soil and Water Conservation District, and AkzoNobel on the board’s behalf.
In other business, Board member Matt Metzger stated the board needs to look at doing a master map for the Chinworth trail, and possibly for all the trails in Kosciusko County, as there is no current one. Bishop also stated the new extension has been used a lot since opening, as he could see on Strava, a health app, how much it’s being used.
The next meeting will be 1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 18 in the Old Courtroom in the Kosciusko County Courthouse.
