Radius Indiana, a regional economic development organization in South Central Indiana, is building the Monon South Trail with collaboration from IU’s Eppley Institute for Parks and Public Lands. The Monon South Trail is a proposed 57-mile trail between Mitchell and the Clark/Floyd County border that connects eight local communities in the Lawrence, Orange, Washington and Clark Counties uplands region of southern Indiana. The greenway trail offers dramatic vistas of the Indiana farmland and linkages to several regional natural destinations, including nearby state parks and recreation facilities. Building on the unique qualities of the region, the proposed trail amenities highlight several local community destinations and connections to other regional attractions.
Radius is collaborating with the Eppley Institute to develop park and recreation system master plans for the Indiana communities of Orleans, Salem, New Pekin, Campbellsburg, and Borden Indiana with some assistance for Mitchell’s ongoing park and recreation system master plan. The completion of a park and recreation system master plan will allow each of these communities to be eligible for Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) grant funding. In this project, Radius is using pass through State of Indiana funds and a DNR approved plan to build the Monon South Trail including this project to provide park and recreation system master plans to communities along the Monon South Trail.
Eppley will lead this effort in collaboration with the National Park Service Trails, Rivers, and Conservation Assistance Program, Radius, and each community’s council and/or park board. The work is anticipated to begin in September and be completed by May 2024.
Radius Indiana serves as a catalyst for government, business, and academic collaboration to market and promotes the eight-county Indiana region (Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Greene, Lawrence, Martin, Orange, and Washington) as a highly competitive, vibrant ecosystem with an increasingly attractive quality of life. Radius and Eppley hold a common mission to improve local South Central Indiana community capacity to manage area parks for improved quality of life, healthy people, long term stewardship, and economic development in these communities.