The Panhandle Pathway is in the process of being extended to the Tippecanoe River State Park. The Pulaski County Commissioners got an update on that effort Monday from Fred Kasten with the Friends of the Panhandle Pathway. “Our longer-term goal is to get the trail built to the state park,” he explained. “That would be along the east side of U.S. 35 most of the way. It does involve the Pulaski County Commissioners at one point, and we’ll be going along the ditches, too, so we’ll have to be dealing with the drainage board, too.”
But before that can happen, the trail needs to be extended north through Winamac from its current end-point at State Road 14. “The short-term goal is we’re going on out on an old railroad bed to the edge of the property and the housing, and then following that north to the Roberts Ditch, about seven-tenths of a mile,” Kasten said. “We’ve already approached the Winamac Town Board, and they are agreeable to use the railroad bed because that’s their property now.” Kasten says the two other landowners involved are also agreeable, and surveying work is now being completed.
The larger task will be getting permission from landowners along U.S. 35. He says the group has just started contacting them, and a few have already said they’re open to the idea. The Pulaski County Commissioners will eventually have to decide whether to allow the trail to use land near Arens Field. However, approval will also be needed from several different state agencies, including the Indiana Department of Transportation.
Also during Monday’s meeting, Commissioner Kenny Becker agreed to serve as the county’s representative on the Friends of the Panhandle Pathway’s Tippecanoe River State Park Access Committee. Kasten also reported that the group has begun working with the Town of Winamac to add a restroom near the trail on the former Long Branch property.
