By Emma Rausch
emma@thepaperofwabsh.com
WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – The Wabash County Commissioners listened to a Lagro landowner’s concerns Tuesday, Jan. 17, regarding a possible alternative route for the Wabash River Trail (WRT) bike path.
Landowner Lena Gray brought forward complaints about the trail’s new developments.
Gray informed the commissioners that the trail has staked a path through her and her neighbors’ front yards and along the side of her property.
“We have been notified that a route will be going this way,” Gray explained. “(The trail) would be crossing 11 drives, seven mailboxes … and a power substation.”
In May 2016, Wabash River Trail Inc. Board Chair Amy Ford announced the plans for the 33-mile, multi-use river walk that would connect Huntington, Wabash and Peru.
Phase I Sub-Phase I will pave a path through Lagro from the east side of Kerr Lock to the end of Basin Street and turn right to connect with East Old U.S. 24.
Phase I will eventually connect Lagro to Wabash, according to Ford’s announcement.
In August, Gray and her siblings Jess and Bernice Gressley told The Paper of Wabash County they were denying the trail access to develop on their riverfront property.
Now, however, a new, alternative route would pass through her front yard, she said.
“(The trail’s board) approached my family and wanted to cross our property down by the river and we refused, so (they’ve) come up a different route that comes across my property where I live,” Gray said while indicating to a map of the proposed route.
For more, see the Jan. 25 issue of The Paper of Wabash County.