Published: November 17, 2009 07:30 pm      

State awards Lebanon $240K for trail

Lebanon — Lebanon has received $240,000 to extend the Gateway Trail from Copeland-Neese Road to the Boone County 4-H Fairgrounds entrance on Indianapolis Avenue.

The grant from the Indiana Department of Transportation is among $20 million awarded in Transportation Enhancement Funds, said Debbie Calder, an InDOT spokeswoman.

Lebanon must match 20 percent of the grant, Calder said.

The Gateway Trail will eventually connect to the Farm Heritage Trail on Lebanon’s northwest side.

In August, Mayor Huck Lewis said a $78,000 Department of Natural Resources grant would help pay for a section of the FHT from Patterson Street to Dead End Road.

Lewis had said the Gateway Trail grant would help pay for the trail’s design.

The Gateway Trail will run from Abner Longley Park along Indianapolis Avenue and then past the Fairgrounds to a former Penn Central rail line that once connected Lebanon and Whitestown.