By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Northeast Indiana Regional Development Authority will not use eminent domain to obtain land for the Wabash River Trail project.
The four-member board unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday afternoon, March 14, saying that if it chooses “to provide funding for the project it shall not use its eminent domain powers in association with the project.”
Furthermore, “the RDA does hereby resolve that it shall not use its eminent domain powers, in any form, as it relates to the project.”
In February, the trail project requested $960,236 for the Lagro portion of the 33-mile trail.
While the trail committee on its own doesn’t have eminent domain authority, the use of tax funds via the RDA’s Road to One Million raised the fear in the trail’s opponents that it could be used.
Neither the trail’s request for funding, nor the Eagles Theatre request for $996,567 for its refurbishing project, were acted upon.
The RDA’s Road to One Million director Michael Galbraith said that the board has received requests for more than the $42 million it had to disperse, so it is still studying ways of how to use the funds it has left available to better serve the 11-county region.
The funding could be addressed when the board meets in April.
For more information, see the March 22 issue of The Paper of Wabash County.