MAYOR RICHARD’S SECOND GREENWAY SUMMIT

Monday evening, November 14, 2005, at 6:30pm Mayor Graham Richard announced that the City of Fort Wayne will add another mile to the Towpath trail system which will eventually tie the City and New Haven with the Aboite area. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources recently awarded the City of Fort Wayne a $150,000 federal grant to assist with constructing a portion of the Towpath Trail.

The Greenway Summit was hosted by Dawn Richie, Greenway Manager, City of Fort Wayne. The room at The River Lodge in Shoaff Park was full to capacity as Mayor Richard spoke of the many benefits of having greenway trails in, around, and through Fort Wayne.

In the late 1970s a group of concerned citizens from both the private sectors in Fort Wayne and Allen County met to form the Greenway Consortium. Their goal was to develop a linear park (trail) along the banks of our rivers that would extend from county line to county line. They succeeded, but the interesting thing about the greenway is that there were greenways being developed all over the country.

Roy Robison, from the National Park Service was there to demonstrate support for trails on a national level. He mentioned that trail systems were consistent with healthier lifestyles, energy conservation, and cleaner environments.

Bill Bryan from Steuben County Greenway Plans spoke of the trails being completed in the Angola area. He mentioned that maybe we should speak of Northeast Indiana as upstate Indiana, the same as New Yorkers speak of upstate New York.

Norm Yoder, the mayor of Auburn was also at the meeting. He emphasized that people’s property values tend to increase in areas where the greenways are adjacent to their land.

Keith Huffman, Chairperson Wells’ County Revitalization Committee, spoke of a possible trail connecting southwest Fort Wayne (Waynedale area) to Bluffton via the old interurban right-of-way.

Dawn Ritchie and Mayor Richard closed the meeting with information about the future of greenway systems across the country and Fort Wayne’s commitment to future walkways and bikeways. Exercise combined with transportation seems to be the way of the future.