New County Park Board gives glimpse of master plan

Ken de la Bastide, The Herald Bulletin, Anderson, Ind.
·2 min read

Feb. 27—ANDERSON — The members of the newly appointed Madison County Park Board gave a first look at the proposed master plan.

The Park Board met Thursday for the first time and elected Ben Orcutt as president and Rachel Christenson as vice president.

Board members voted to name County Engineer Jessica Bastin as parks director and County Attorney Jeff Graham to serve as legal counsel.

"This is an exciting time for the county," Sarah Evans with V3 said. "The process started in January 2023 with an inventory and collecting data to understand the county and the assets."

Park Board member Tom Bannon asked about connecting any trails in Madison County with existing trails in other counties.

Evans said they were looking at connectivity to the trail systems in neighboring counties.

Orcutt said it makes sense to start the county park system by utilizing the White River.

"We should focus on the waterways," he said. "Maybe use Anderson as the center on White River and extend to the east and west."

Evans said the intention is to create a park plan that is uniquely a Madison County plan with a goal of including all of the county's assets."

The final plan has to be submitted to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources by April 15 to be eligible for federal funding.

Evans said a trail plan has been drafted to include all the areas not in a municipal jurisdiction.

"We want a holistic system and made sure were not creating trails to nowhere," she said.

Evans said a part of the plan will be greenways along water ways in the county to include White River, Fall Creek and Pipe Creek.

She said the board is looking at a possible rail to trail system along abandoned railroad right of way.

"That will be implemented over time as rail corridors become inactive in the future," Evans said.

A part of the plan could be trails utilizing the county's waterways to connect the parks.

Evans said although no trail heads have been identified the draft plan includes several concepts to include access to the waterways and restrooms.

"This is a large system and will take many years to implement," she said. "We want to build advocacy and excitement to help leverage funding in the future."

The Park Board will meet the second and fourth Thursday's of every month.

Follow Ken de la Bastide on Twitter @KendelaBastide, or call 765-640-4863.