By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — A groundswell of excitement has begun to surface as Kosciusko County Park Board continues to organize plans for trails.
Numerous towns are now looking at planning for trails that connect communities and coordinating those ideas with the park board.
On Thursday, the county park board learned of interest in Etna Green and the idea of leaders in Pierceton and Winona Lake working together to establish a trail between those two towns.
Leesburg Town Council member Christina Archer also spoke about what’s being discussed in her town.
“In Leesburg, there isn’t just a convenient place to go walking, and walking on brick streets is scenic, but it’s not the safest,” Archer said. “What we really want to do is connect our little historic town with other trail systems that exist in the county to create a better system of both walking paths and maybe biking paths as well.”
The park board is also looking at hosting a “summit” meeting so they can hear from all towns interested in developing trails.
Winona Lake Town Manager Craig Allebach, himself of big proponent of trails, summed up the excitement.
“From hearing the things from Leesburg today and Etna Green, I echo the comments that this is exciting and this is what we all envision — that this is what would happen once we started to talk about how we could connect,” Allebach said.
The board is also finalizing plans to celebrate the upcoming construction of the first leg of the Chinworth trail that will eventually stretch from Warsaw to Etna Green. The event along Old Road 30 west of Warsaw will be March 20 but details have not yet been finalized.
