Official concerned about loss of Indiana trails funding
Since 2018, $180 million has gone into the initiative, and the state has partnered with local units of government and nonprofits to develop more than 217 miles of trail in 58 counties.
Recently, Vigo County Commissioner Mike Morris, a longtime proponent of trails and running on them, said, 'I was advised that there was no Next Level Trails funding.'
Last year, the program received $40 million. On Feb. 6, Morris testified before the Indiana State Legislature in support of reallocating about $30 million in Next Level Trails Grant funding.
'When I testified, I said that if the governor's directives are 10% reduction in all of your departments, why don't you cut $3 or $4 million but not defund it completely?' Morris said.
'The state told me the pressure on their budget has increased due to Medicaid,' Morris said. 'They've got to fund that, and if things have to give, I understand that. Medicaid has gone up more than anything else.'
Next Level Trails grants have been instrumental in expanding and enhancing trails across Vigo County, including the Riley Spur Trail and other key projects that enhance outdoor activity, connectivity and quality of life for residents.
Though the Riley Spur Trail will not be affected by the disappearance of Next Level Trail grants because the project has already been budgeted out, Morris laments any pause in creating and expanding trails.
'Acceptance for this trail building has been gaining momentum, and I don't want to see that stopped,' Morris said. 'I'd just hate to see that momentum put on hold.'
A longtime runner
Morris recalls when he embraced running wholeheartedly.
'I was 33 years old, and was in a department store buying pants with a bigger waistline,' he said. 'I was looking at the prices, and I took 'em and put 'em on the rack and walked out of the store and decided to start running again and lose weight. It was that simple.'
Since then, Morris has competed in Canada twice for world duathlon (running and cycling) championships and flown to Switzerland for marathons, and has run throughout the country.
First-place medals that he won recently in a multisport competition in Texas hang in his office. He recently competed in a 5K trail race in Plainfield.
He first got involved in trail building when his friend, Pat Martin, was City Planner (which he was until 2016, when he became Bloomington's transportation planner). The federal government was funding public transportation — from highways to trails — and put the West Central Indiana Development Corporation (later, Thrive) in charge of planning and distributing that money.
'Pat came up with some good ideas — one was the National Road Heritage Trail through Terre Haute,' Morris said. 'There was a lot of public support for it. We just about had it done, and we had a mayoral election, and that changed some of the dynamics of building that. The state had allocated about $800,000 to build that trail.
Changed mayors
Judy Anderson, who was mayor from 2000-2003, was lukewarm about the trail until she realized how popular the idea was, Morris said, even driving a bulldozer across the trail during its construction.
'Everybody saw that it was a positive thing,' he said, and the Rails to Trails Conservancy, created in 1986, contributed to the momentum.
'Our local trail, the Riley Spur Trail, came together when the Surface Transportation Board sent letters to the commissioners about rail abandonment,' Morris said. 'I jumped in.' He began land banking those corridors because he didn't have to develop them immediately.
When Rails to Trails began a program to build a trail from coast to coast, Holcomb was determined to be the first state to traverse the entire state for linkage, and to do so via Next Level Trails.
From 'not here' to staunch support
When Morris was championing the Riley Spur Trail as work began on the 7.9-mile asphalt trail, he encountered some not-in-my-backyard protests from neighbors, but that attitude has changed to, 'Oh, this is good for my backyard.'
'I had some people who were very wary of the Riley Spur Trail,' he said. 'One of the big fallacies was this was going to bring some kind of undesirables into their community. It doesn't, at all.
'Their neighborhood has improved and their property values have increased,' he added. 'They're talking to their neighbors now. Mom wants to get out with a friend and the baby stroller and walk a mile someplace talking. A safe environment to clear your mind.'
Morris added that kids' minds are cleared when they get outdoors, away from their devices.
'That's what I can see on the Riley Spur Trail,' he said. 'I go there, and there's mom, dad and three kids, and the kids are going, 'Yeah!''
Fortunately, the Riley Spur Trail will need no additional money to continue construction.
'Our program is funded and we will complete it,' Morris said, adding that the next section will be completed later this year. 'It'll traverse Honey Creek and we have some bridge-building to do there.'
He's more concerned about the bigger picture.
'I'm looking at this as more of a statewide program,' he said. 'We had a project from Rockville to the north end of the county — I have no way to complete that at this point. I don't have any funding to do anything.'
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