Adams County trails group gets $565,000 grant

Decatur Daily Democrat

   Two leaders of South Adams Trails Inc. (SATI) have announced that the organization has received $565,000 in Federal Highway Administration transportation enhancement funds to help create a walking/biking trail between Geneva and Berne.
    The announcement by Doug Milligan and Gary Habegger, who are officers in SATI, says the $565,000 may be used for up to 80 percent of the cost of the project, with SATI picking up the remaining 20 percent.
    Twenty percent comes to $141,250, so the trail covering four miles between Berne and Geneva will cost $706,250 for "initial stages of trail construction and related costs," says the SATI statement.
    The announcement goes on to say that SATI's 20 percent match "may be cash, or the value of donated land, or the value of donated labor or equipment."
    SATI is a nonprofit group, so donations to it are tax-deductible.
    Milligan and Habegger said preliminary engineering and obtaining the rights-of-way for the trail will take place in 2009 and 2010 and construction of the trail will start in 2011.
    In the announcement, Habegger and Milligan thanked "all South Adams residents for their interest in developing walking/biking trails and for the cooperative efforts of the City of Berne and the Town of Geneva that went into the successful grant application.
    "A special note of appreciation is also directed to Commonwealth Engineers Inc. of Indianapolis and the Adams County Commissioners for assistance in acquiring the grant funding," they said.