LaGrange community gives feedback to new proposal for the Hawpatch Trail

LA GRANGE COUNTY, Ind. -- LaGrange County Trails and the LaGrange County Community Foundation invited residents to learn more and give feedback on the new proposal for Hawpatch Trail.

The 17-mile-long trail will connect Millersburg, Topeka, and Wolcottville.

"We've had the engineering completed, and we're going to start construction of Phase One of the trail and next year, and we wanted public input on things they'd like to see along the trail," said Jeff Wingstrom, the LaGrange County Trails President.

Phase one is 4.3 miles long, S 500 W to S 075 W, construction will start on March 2027 and ends November 2027.

Phase two is 5.9 miles, S 1200 W to Morrow St, construction should start after phase 1 or around spring 2028.

The third phase won't begin until the other phases are completed first and if they receive enough funding for the project.

The project received 5 million from Lily Endowment Inc in help for phase 1 and 2.

Wingstrom says the inspiration came from the Pumpinvine Trail, "we wanted to have another bike trail in our county, and so we were looking for the best place to start that, and we found that the old Wabash Railroad corridor was pretty much intact, and it could go from Wolcottville to Topeka to Millersburg, and so we thought that would be a great place."