NORTH MANCHESTER - Plans for North Manchester's non-motorized trail throughout the town have been placed on a temporary hold, parks director Brian Wagner told park board members Wednesday.

Deane Rundell of Rundell Ernstberger Associates, Muncie, was hired in 1998 to develop a master trail plan for the parks department. The plan was completed in 1999.

Cost for the first phase of the trail was estimated at $4.5 million, which exceeds the cap for individual projects by approximately $3.5 million.

The first phase was broken down into four phases, with the first consisting of a loop along Eel River that travels across the covered bridge, to Mill Street and around Manchester Elementary School. Cost for this phase is estimated at $1,200 and was approved by board members Nov. 29 to be taken out of the park board's 2001 budget.

Wagner said Wednesday he learned from Indiana Department of Transportation that there are two areas on their application they need to work on: the right of way issue of where the trail is going, and that INDOT has only $15 or $16 million to give away, so some expenses will have to be "whittled-out."

"Now we have to have the right of way application signed before we apply," Wagner said.

He said "it makes sense to hold back" on the application and complete the right of way application first so they will have a "strong, clean application before starting."

Wagner is now working with Chuck Tiedy, attorney, on the language of the application and talking to homeowners about rights of way. He said he doesn't foresee any problems with obtaining right of way consent from homeowners.

"So we're going to knock that off in the next few months," Wagner said.

When completed, the trail will connect the college, the schools, the Main Street businesses, all of the parks (which will include the Town Life Center and Maple Park) and the shopping center on Main Street.

In other business:

• Wagner said they are working on converting an open area of the pool room beside the girls' locker room door into a storage area. Construction will include converting a glass wall into brick, which will cut down on the cool air coming in. Wagner said 500 bricks will be needed to complete the job. They also will need to match up the bricks with the rest of the brick wall.

"We have a couple months to hatch that out," Wagner said.

"We sacrifice a little bit of light," he said. But the pool still has four glass doors around the corner. "So we think it will be a nice improvement."

• Board members approved the purchase of an Aquamax pool cleaner and cart from Leisure Pools, Syracuse and Goshen. Wagner said the cleaner will cost $3,725. Although it's $700 more than the current Dolphin cleaner they have, Wagner said, it will save them money in repair work they've had to do for the Dolphin.

• Board member Dennis Frieden reported that the Manchester Recreation Association had a good year last year with an $887.60 profit. Although lower than the year before at $1,469 profit, some changes were made in 2000 to make up for the difference.

"We made some changes and sold some signs for advertisements," Frieden said. "Overall I'd say MRA had a good year. I'd like to see that number higher, but overall, we came out OK."

• Anne Myers was re-elected as board president and Frieden was re-elected as vice president. Frieden and board member Kay Batdorf also were elected as community service representatives and Brad Yoder was re-elected as Plan Commission representative.

North Manchester Department of Park and Recreation Board members are: president Anne Myers, vice president Dennis Frieden, parks director Brian Wagner, assistant parks director Donna Boomershine, Larry Miller and Kay Batdorf. Brad Yoder is Plan Commission representative. [[In-content Ad]]