Carol Johnson, Southern Indiana Business Report
BORDEN – A crowd of more than 100 gathered in Borden Community Park Tuesday for a groundbreaking of the Monon South Trail, a 62-mile pedestrian pathway that will cross through five southern Indiana counties.
Funded by Gov. Eric Holcomb’s Next Level Trails program, this first phase of construction will see the completion of 20 miles of paved and aggregate sections of the trail through the downtown areas of Borden, New Pekin, Salem, Saltillo, Campbellsburg, Orleans and Mitchell.
When completed, the Monon South will be Indiana’s longest trail.
Radius Indiana is the funding administrator of the trail and leads its development. Jeff Quyle, CEO and president of Radius Indiana, welcomed the crowd that included trail enthusiasts, and community leaders.
Quyle thanked the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Next Level Trails for committing to the Monon South Trail’s development as well as Regional Opportunity Initiatives for securing READI funds to build the trail.
Radius will continue to support the trail through the next phases of construction.
“We will also continue to pursue sources of financing that will allow us to construct new segments of the trail. We are starting a new campaign with Ignite Philanthropy, which will seek to activate philanthropic support for the Monon South Trail,” Quyle said.
Speakers included Dan Bortner, director of Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources; Steve Ferguson, chairman of Cook Group; New Albany Mayor Jeff Gahan, Steve Williams, president of the Borden Town Council; and Wes Christmas and Ryan Hughes from engineering, design and consulting firm Clark Dietz.
“Just like the trails we all love to explore, the path to this moment has been long and winding,” said Bortner. “The Monon South has gone from an idea to funding, to property purchase, to planning, engineering and finally construction.”
Funding for the trail came from Gov. Eric Holcomb’s Next Level Trails program, which has been the largest investment in trails in Indiana history. Bortner said the state now has 100 miles of new trail open across the state.
Over the past five years, the state has invested $180 million in four rounds of Next Level Trails funding for 89 different trail projects.
“The Monon South marks a high point in the story of Next Level Trails,” Bortner said. “When complete, it will connect seven communities and five counties. Approximately 440,000 people live within 10 miles of this trail’s path and I hope all of them plus many visitors are going to come to enjoy the connections and natural beauty this trail will provide.”
The trail is constructed on the old Monon South railroad line. Ferguson recalled the time when rail use ended and how that affected southern Indiana.
“You think back 170 years ago when the Legislature chartered that route and the vision they had for it,” he said. “Now we’re standing on the threshold of the next 170 years. It’s incumbent on all of us to say, ‘We put that shovel in the ground but that’s just the first step.’ We’ve got to finish this. Now we’re on the verge of what this could be.”
The Monon South Trail represents a new asset for southern Indiana to build upon and attract new residents and visitors.
“This is just the beginning,” Ferguson said.
Williams, of the Borden Town Council, reminded the audience that Borden was once known as the Strawberry Capital of the US and trains used the Monon South line to ship strawberries to markets. The portion of the trail that will run through Borden borders the Community Park, a 41.5-acre park with baseball fields, playground and will soon have an amphitheater.
He described Borden as “The perfect sized town. It’s that rural space that’s close to a city but far enough away we keep our space and that’s a sentiment shared by our residents.”
Excitement for trail construction to begin was shared by those in the audience.
“”We’re very excited about this and we see great potential for this trail,” said John Neichter, president of Southern Indiana Wheelmen, a bicycle group based in Floyd and Clark counties.
He said the trail will be an ideal place to ride for people of all ages and experience levels.
“It’s big for Borden,” said Brenna LaDuke, Borden town development coordinator. “It will open up a lot of economic development opportunities for the town.”
Borden is about 5 miles from Huber’s Orchard and Winery, which draws 700,000 visitors each year. LaDuke said the trail’s proximity to Huber’s will be a draw for those visitors seeking a trail experience.
2025 pitch competition for trail businesses
Trail users will bring economic opportunities to the trail communities. To promote the development of new trail-focused businesses, Quyle announced that Radius Indiana will host a pitch competition in spring 2025 to identify and reward the best business proposals.
“To help boost the establishment of new trail businesses, we want to turn to the strong tradition of entrepreneurship that flourishes in southern Indiana,” he said.
Details will be announced in early 2025.