HANCOCK COUNTY — For many people, outdoor exercise has become a more important form of recreation since COVID-19 made social distancing a necessity. Christine Owens, director of planning and development for the town of Cumberland, said the town’s six miles of trails have been busier than usual this year.
“We’re seen a lot of extra use of them,” Owens said.
Even as trails see more pedestrians, some Hancock County communities that are working on their own trail projects have been held up by the low availability of funds caused by the economic downturn associated with the coronavirus.
Ryan Crum, director of planning and building for McCordsville, said the town is working on several trail projects. One, known as the Old Town Mt. Comfort Sidewalk Project, would create sidewalks from Broadway to County Road 750N, intended to fill in a gap in the town’s walkability. It would also add a crosswalk.
Design on the project is complete, but Crum said the town is holding off on bidding for construction due to the uncertainty of municipal budgets.
“We’ll build it; we just don’t know when,” he said.
It’s difficult to plan for projects until McCordsville receives budget estimates from the state Department of Local Government Finance, Crum said.
McCordsville is also hoping to complete other trails, including one in the Austin Trace area that would connect it with a trail around the local Meijer supermarket. Another ambitious project is the proposed Creekside Trail, set to run parallel to County Road 900N.
Both are outlined in the “Next Stop McCordsville” plan, created to help forge connections for bicyclists and pedestrians between the town and neighboring communities.
“It is definitely a project that we would need grant funding in order to complete,” he said.
Grant funding is less available this year, with the state government cutting back on spending. The Next Level Trails Grant through the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, the state’s largest source of grants for pedestrian trails, was frozen this year.
A planned $30 million set to flow into the Next Level program’s second stage was suspended and then eliminated this year as COVID-19 made state money more scarce. In June, a bipartisan group of lawmakers appealed to Gov. Eric Holcomb to restore the money, but so far, that hasn’t happened.
“The decision to not move forward with additional Next Level Trails was not made lightly,” Rachel Hoffmeyer, Holcomb’s press secretary, said in a statement at the time. “Gov. Holcomb has been a champion for expanding and connecting trails and is passionate about improving quality of life. As revenues fall, resources must be shifted to be able to support essential services.”
The Next Level Trails Grant program has awarded thousands of dollars to Hancock County trails projects in the past, funding construction of the Franklin Street Trail in Greenfield among others. In 2019, it awarded $24.9 million to 17 communities around the state. Those included two connector trails the Greenfield Parks and Recreation department is working on, which will connect the city’s Brandywine and Beckenholdt parks to the Pennsy Trail.
Parks director Ellen Kuker said the city was happy to receive funding for those projects, which are wrapping up the planning and design phase. Construction will likely begin this year.
Kuker said the city would likely have applied for more trails funding in a 2020 grant cycle if it was available, and is hoping the Next Level grant will return in 2021.
Other communities are proceeding apace with their trail projects. Fortville and Shirley each have trails planned that will be funded by the Stellar Communities program. Teresa Hester, clerk-treasurer of Shirley, said she hopes ground will be broken this fall on the Shirley Trail.
On a longer timeline, the Riley Literary Trail in Greenfield — which will feature art, gardens and signage highlighting Greenfield’s literary history — is set to open in 2023, with funding from Stellar Communities and the Indiana Metropolitan Planning Organization.