Everybody wants to build hike/bike trails, but Burns Harbor Redevelopment Commission member Mike Perrine wants to know who’s going to maintain them.

To that end Perrine suggested his town research whether a binding interlocal government cooperation agreement between several jurisdictions could be used to create an entity that would receive funds for trail maintenance and assure that it’s done. Town attorney Robert Welsh will report back.

Burns Harbor’s developing a memorandum of understanding with Ogden Dunes, Portage, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and perhaps Porter County over the proposed Marquette Greenway Trail network. The MOU could be expanded to include the towns of Porter and Chesterton. The Marquette Greenway eventually will connect Illinois and Michigan via Indiana.

Burns Harbor recently completed a $50,000 feasibility study to plan its leg of the Marquette Greenway. Member Cliff Fleming opened Wednesday’s Redevelopment Commission meeting by saying he will talk to the Northwest Regional Development Authority to see if there’s a grant available for trail construction; the RDA paid for the feasibility study.

That’s all well and good, said Perrine, and it would be nice to get the money, but “without some viable means to maintain those trails it doesn’t make sense to build them although we want them in our town. Perhaps we have to look harder if we want to build it in the first place.”

As proposed the main trail generally will parallel the Little Calumet River in Burns Harbor with offshoots north to U.S. 12 and south to U.S. 20 including to a planned new downtown district. If finances are a consideration, the main trunk could be built but not the offshoots, Perrine said.

He noted the Burns Harbor Park Department is small with few employees; it already has nearly run out of money for 2009 and subsequently was granted a $5,000 bailout by the Town Council. All towns will be hustling to fund even basic services in the future, let alone recreation, said Perrine, making how to pay for future trail maintenance even more important.

Chesterton has a leg of the Prairie Duneland Trail, which it maintains, and has begun development of a Westchester-Liberty Trail. Porter for years has been attempting to build the Brickyard Trail and the Orchard Pedestrian Way, but there never has been a public decision who will maintain the approximately 5 miles of hike/bike paths and how it would be paid for.

Burns Harbor town engineer Hesham Khalil said the type of trail construction goes a long way toward limiting maintenance; concrete or asphalt require less of it, and a gravel path like the Calumet Trail near U.S. 12 requires more. Fleming said parts of the Calumet Trail are in poor condition.

Perrine said area government units historically have taken an anti-merger posture, but his proposal could demonstrate the value of cooperation for trail maintenance. “The ball has to start rolling and this is an embryonic way.”

Khalil suggested the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission be consulted about where and how to start the interlocal process.

In other business Wednesday:

*The commission voted 4-0 to submit upgrading/paving Old Porter Road east of Indiana 149 as a town project seeking federal stimulus funds. Several communities in Lake and Porter entered into an agreement with a Northwest Indiana Forum-hired consultant hoping to maximize receipt of stimulus money locally.

*The commission voted 4-0 supporting development of an improved fiber optic corridor along the Indiana Toll Road, two miles south of Burns Harbor. Khalil said some town ordinances require installation of conduit for future fiber optic connections.

*Commission members Louis Bain and John Marshall, the latter a non-voting member, both were absent.

Posted 8/14/2009