The Indiana Department of Transportation has agreed to spend $481,220.52 to acquire land or easements from three property owners in the path of the proposed Salt Creek Trail.
That money will be coming from the grant funding which INDOT awarded to Brown County in 2014, said Harry Maginity, spokesman for INDOT.
For this leg of the trail, he said that $1,955,644 in federal funding was awarded, and that “money spent on real estate is included in the total.” How much money will be needed to actually build this section of the paved trail isn’t clear yet.
Acquisition paperwork was filed with the Brown County recorder’s office on Oct. 16. The property owners — Gary and Sheila Oliver, Gonzalo Dies and Jacqueline D. Watson — signed the agreements in February, June and August, respectively.
Watson, owner of the RedBarn Jamboree property along State Road 46 East near Parkview Road, received $2,950 for a temporary easement across 0.143 acres of her land.
She also received $297,050 for a perpetual easement, with $158,025 for the value of the land and $139,025 for “damages,” according to documents filed with the recorder’s office. That was for a total of 0.461 acres.
How Now Brown County LLC received $5,300 for a temporary easement across 0.226 acres. No map was included with the document that showed exactly where that easement is.
Dies is the registered owner of that company; he is a business partner in Hesitation Point Bike and Backcountry, the bike shop next to Watson’s property. Hesitation Point recently announced it would close this month.
A map filed with the Watson paperwork shows that the easements INDOT is getting from her are along State Road 46 East and Salt Creek. The area starts near the RedBarn Jamboree sign and cuts across the front of the property where campers sometimes set up, then along Salt Creek until it meets up with the Oliver property.
The Olivers agreed to a sum of $175,920.52, with $35,793.02 of that for land and improvements and $139,127.50 for damages. They signed a warranty deed, which makes INDOT the new owner of 0.259 acres of their property.
The Olivers had been appearing at multiple public meetings since last summer in an attempt to stop the placement of a highway bridge on their property. That bridge would allow the pedestrian trail to cross Salt Creek into the school-owned Eagle Park athletic property.
Eventually, this trail is envisioned to link Brown County State Park — which is on the far east side of Eagle Park — with downtown Nashville, the Nashville schools’ campus and possibly the county-owned Deer Run Park.
Other property owners could be in the path of the trail, including Colton Edens Magner at Parkview Road and 46 East, and the Snyder Farm at 46 East and Snyder Road; however, the exact route of that middle section hasn’t yet been determined.
INDOT also has offered the school district money for easements at Eagle Park. The Brown County Schools Board of Trustees has not made a decision on whether or not to accept INDOT’s offer, which is $13,700 for easements and right-of-way on a little less than 3 acres, on the east and west ends of Eagle Park. One of the highway bridge sections also will link Eagle Park to the state park.
A previous school board gave consent for the trail to be put on Eagle Park land years ago; however, that consent document was never signed, current leaders learned last year.
The school board didn’t discuss the trail at its Oct. 18 meeting; the board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is Nov. 15.
Mike Magner, the Brown County Highway superintendent and local agent for the trail project with INDOT, said earlier this month that the hope is to start working on the trail again this winter, laying the foundation for the donated bridges that INDOT is bringing here from Clay County. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is involved in this section of the trail as well because it will start/end in the park, he said.
The first, three-quarter-mile section of the trail, linking the Brown County YMCA and the Nashville CVS, opened in the fall of 2013.
