City reviews Jackson Creek Trail

Due to child safety and other issues, Rod Young, Republican candidate for Bloomington Common Council in District 4, called for the council on Sept. 30 to re-examine plans for the Jackson Creek Trail.\nThe public trail will snake through the city near Childs Elementary School and Sycamore Knolls neighborhood. Young expressed safety concerns in response to the entrance of the trail, which is located at the elementary school.\n"I am deeply concerned about having a staging area at an elementary school," Young said, referring to the opening of the trail. "There will naturally be strange cars and activity that teachers couldn't possibly monitor. It is another case of the city council not thinking things through. If they had, surely they would have thought that the risk to the children is unacceptable."\nHis concerns not only touched on child safety, but also concerns for the Sycamore Knolls neighborhood. According to a press release sent by Young, plans include keeping the trail in the creek bed near the neighborhood. Young said he believes doing this will, "put an environmentally fragile area at risk as well as creating privacy concerns for neighbors."\nThe cost of the trail is also a concern. Young said he believes the current plan for the trail takes advantage of federal grants.\n"Federal requirements raise the overall budget tremendously and require that the federal bureaucracy become involved in regulating Bloomington's trail infrastructure," Young said. \nAccording to the press release, the proposed path lies in a flood plain and would require permits from the Department of Natural Resources. \n"The cost of building a path that protects the environment, yet is safe for people to use after a hard rain, would run into the millions," Young said.\nMick Renneisen, administrator of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department, said Young's concerns of Jackson Creek Trail are premature. \n"This is a conceptual master plan on where to connect the trail," Renneisen said. "Until individual plans take place, I don't see a reason for a re-evaluation."\nYoung said he is not against the trail's construction, as long as it is built where appropriate.\nRenneisen said that while Young is in support of these trails, his concern lies only within his district. "Young's concern for the trail does not call the whole trail to question, but just one section of the trail," Renneisen said. \nYoung said he believes that questioning safety of children, cost, and potential risk to the environment with the building of Jackson Creek Trail "is not worth the public sacrifice it would demand." \n"With the current city council's plan, we have something everybody wants in a place nobody wants it," Young said.\n-- Contact staff writer Monica Dix at mcdix@indiana.edu