Plans for the Lake Maxinkuckee Bike and Walking Trail and other Stellar Community projects are moving ahead in the Town of Culver. Town Manager Jonathan Leist told the town council Tuesday that the first quarterly update meetings on the three INDOT-funded projects were held last week. Those include the Lake Maxinkuckee Trail, West Jefferson Gateway, and State Road 10 sidewalks.
“All three projects are on the site and topography survey stage,” he explained. “So crews have been out surveying over the last couple weeks, and once that survey work is completed, we’ll have a better idea if parcel acquisition’s going to be required and how much on all three projects. And we’ll be able to start moving into that design phase, at that kind of wraps up over the next week or two, hopefully.”
Meanwhile, Leist said Thomas Excavating is wrapping up its work on the trail. “The section around the Beach Lodge there is essentially complete,” he said. “They’ll be back in the spring to do dirt work and grass seed, but they’re pretty much done until it warms up.”
Leist also updated council members on the town’s application for INDOT funding for the third phase of the trail project. “I found out it was the only application submitted from our region in INDOT, in the LaPorte region for this round, so fingers crossed,” Leist told council members. “We’ll find out at the end of February, whether it was awarded or not.”
If funding is approved, construction would not be expected to start until 2024. The town would be responsible for 20 percent of the cost, up to $220,000.
The third phase of the Lake Maxinkuckee Trail was originally included in the Marshall County Crossroads Regional Stellar Communities application. But since the region didn’t get the designation, Culver officials decided to make a separate application, as part of INDOT’s call for projects.
