Speedway Creates Trails Association


The Speedway Trails Association was officially formed on May 23 by a group of Speedway residents that are advocating a trail system.

The group officially adopted bylaws that were prepared by a trail enthusiast Herman Greenwood.

"We support all trails," John Hale said. Speedway is fortunate to have abandon rail corridors of B & O and Conrail. The Conrail corridor parallels Crawfordsville Road and extends behind Marsh Grocery Store and through the Indiana Girl School property. The B & O starts at 10th and Tibbs Avenue and extends to Montezuma, Indiana. Eagle Creek Trail also intersects the B & O Corridor south of 21st Street as part of the levy system.

Proponents also discussed fulfilling the vision from the 2005 Speedway Vision Committee to have a looping trail within Speedway to link the parks, schools and shopping center. The trail would be identified with mile markers to encourage people to move and exercise. This discussion also included building a walkway over Crawfordsville Road to enhance north and southbound pedestrian traffic.

Other trail enthusiasts preferred to focus on the B & O and the Conrail corridors to connect to downtown Indianapolis. These trail advocates see a regional system as more of a catalyst to attract bicycling tourists and bike commuters to patronize the area.

Steve Morris of the DNR Division of Outdoor and Recreation attended the meeting to alert the group that the DNR has an expressed interest to preserve the Conrail corridor.

He noted that Conrail is not one of the state's visionary trails like the B & O corridor and Monon Trail because it ends at the Marion County and Hendricks County Line. The B & O corridor extends 62-miles west and can link to other regional trails in the state. The state's goal is to have a trail located within 15 minutes of each individual.

Clermont is a classic example of a trail spur leading from the proposed B & O Trail. The spur could assist the small business owners in town with riders traveling on the 62-mile trail in need of a rest.

The B & O is located about one-half of a mile south of the town limits. Clermont Town Councilman Walt Miller attended the meeting to make his interest known that a spur would be welcomed.

Morris explained he would check to see if this particular section of Conrail was involved in the class action suit to determine ownership. He said Conrail has divested itself of ownership and that all easements revert to the original property owners. DNR expressed a desire to preserve the corridor.

He also noted that the group should become familiar with the Metropolitan Planning Organization's Indianapolis Regional Pedestrian Plan to see how it could link into the trail development in Speedway. It is important to incorporate these plans into local comprehensive and zoning plans in order to assure the plan can become a reality.

The group members decided to contact the County Assessor's office to find out if property owners adjacent had legally claimed their section of the B & O corridor. According to Don Katterhenry, the court awarded the corridor to the adjacent landowners, but it did not make the ownership automatic. The owners had to fill out paper work to legally claim it.

One adjacent landowner said she filed the paper work several years ago but has never heard a word from the assessor's office.

The next meeting is June 27th. The time is 6 p.m. at the Speedway Public Library.