PARKE COUNTY, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb announced a $5 million grant to expand the Parke Community Rail Trail.
The grant is part of a $29.6 million grant that will help to build 70 miles of new trail development.
Parke Community Rail Trail already has plans for how they plan to use its funding from the state.
“We plan to extend this trail which is about a half-mile long here in Rosedale and continue up to community Rockville which is our county seat,” said Parke Trails Alliance president Mark Davis. “We’ll be building 10 miles of trail.”
There will be gaps in the trail due to gaps in the property that the Parke Trails Alliance owns. The Parke Community Rail Trail did not receive funding during the first round of grants but continued to put forth the effort.
“The governor put it on hold last year due to COVID, but then in January this year he opened it back up, so we had about a one year hiatus or gap in waiting for the grant to become available again and this year we were successful,” said Davis.
Holcomb says two million more people visited Indiana State Parks during a global pandemic and that giving money to keep them up is worth it.
“We’ve got so much beauty surrounding us that we want to continue to make investments in these very localized amenities and parks sure are not just popular but they’re a great way for people to get out and get exercise,” Holcomb said.
Davis says this will be around a three year project they plan to begin design work on the trails this spring.
