Hobart Chronicle
September 15, 2004
Man with mission
wishes to link bike path
By Bob Burns
Bicyclist Michael
T. Stulac of Hobart pauses to rest at the east end of the Oak Savannah
Bike Trail on Wisconsin Street. Lake County Park Department owns the
right-of-way to extend the trail eastward to Lake Park Avenue and the
city is trying to devise a bike route along city streets.
Photo by Bob Burns
Michael T. Stulac of
Hobart is a man with a mission -- to see a bicycle route through
Hobart; linking the bike paths that approach the city from the east and
west.
It's a a dream he shares
with others, including some city officials.
Stulac is a member of
Calumet Citizens for Connecting Communities, which identifies
itself as C4 for short.
"We have members
throughout Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties," he said. "I am the
member in Hobart and this is where the gab exists between the Oak
Savannah Bike Trail and the Prairie Duneland Bike Trail. I would like
to see it closed."
Living in Hobart, he
assumed the responsibility to get action taken and wrote a letter to
Mayor Linda Buzinec asking for assistance to connect the paths. Buzinec
transferred the letter to Park Superintendent Mike Farrell who called
Stulac to a meeting with him and the city director of development,
Denarie Kane.
They went over their
plan for creating a street connection to the link proposed by C4. They
are similar but take different approaches to two major railroad
crossings in the area of the Pennsy Station.
Stulac also gathered
members of C4 to attend a Park Board meeting to seek action.
Speaking of Farrell and
Kane, he said, "They were excited to see public interest in something
they want to accomplish and we were excited to see official support for
expanding the system."
Kane said her concern is
about crossing two sets of tracks in the area around the former Pennsy
station. She would like to use a street grade crossing that is
signalized, at Indiana Street. She would like to be able to build a
bypass over the former Pennsylvania tracks to reach the intersection of
Cleveland Street and Hobart Road, where the Prairie Duneland trail
starts and heads east into Portage.
The Lake County Parks
Department, funded by federal grants, has developed an extensive bike
and hiking trail system throughout the western part of the county. It
includes the Oak Savannah Trail that comes east from Griffith through
Gary and Merrillville and into Hobart along the former EJ&E
right-of-way, which had been bought by the county.
That trail now ends at
Wisconsin Street, but the county has the right-of-way and is acquiring
the money to advance it to Lake Park Avenue.
From there, the EJ&E
property acquired and built on some areas and is not available for a
direct route to the Prairie Duneland Trail.
The county, city, and C4
have drawn proposed bicycle routes along various streets and through
city park land from Lake Park Avenue northeast to Cleveland and Hobart,
but nothing definite has been decided.
Kane said the city is
opposed to defining a bike trail on the pavement of city streets, but
would accept signs indicating a bicycle route.
Nickovich said the
county also plans to install kiosks at the end of each trail, with a
map showing the bicycle route through Hobart to guide those using the
trail.
The problem, all agree,
is Hobart has few streets that go long distances through the city,
making it difficult to draw an easy bike route.
All the proposals follow
short lengths of short streets in the Pennsy Station area until
reaching the Prairie Duneland Trail.
Stulac said C4 is
willing to accept a signed route instead of a defined bike trail along
Hobart streets, understanding the difficulty of making a marked
trail conform to the pavement of many neighborhood streets.
Nobody was willing to
venture a timetable for completing the route through Hobart, except
Nickovich said he hopes the county will soon finish its route to Lake
Park Avenue.
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