By Dave Fidlin
CORRESPONDENT
While there are still a number of questions, a potential 7-mile multi-use trail for pedestrians and bicyclists has East Troy officials optimistic about the bevy of possible opportunities on the horizon.
The East Troy Electric Railroad is a focal point of the proposal. The trail would connect the Village of East Troy with the Village of Mukwonago – and run through portions of the Town of East Troy as well – as the municipalities would be connected together.
Most of the path, as proposed, would run along the railroad corridor. Several adjacent low-volume roads also would serve as connectors in some areas.
Eileen Suhm, the village’s administrator, treasurer and Community Development Authority executive director, said there have been on-again, off-again talks of having a multi-use trail that would run through – and beyond – East Troy’s borders.
In the early years, private organizations and grassroots groups advocated for pedestrian-friendly enhancements in the community. A bicyclist’s death as the result of an accident was one of several occurrences that drove the discussion.
From the village’s standpoint, the realization of the extensive trail project would fit hand-in-glove into an overarching goal of promoting walkable accommodations, wherever possible.
“One of (the Village Board’s) goals had been installing sidewalks throughout the village and having connectivity, making it a walkable community,” Suhm said. “The path makes it walkable, but it also gives us that ability to ride bikes. I just think it would be a real win, not only for residents, but for people visiting the community.”
The connectivity piece beyond the village’s municipal boundaries also has been viewed as a synergistic opportunity, where East Troy can draw off the strengths of its neighbors, and vice versa.
“Mukwonago has some neat events going on, and East Troy has neat events as well. People could be riding their bikes, back-and-forth, between the communities,” Suhm said. “It makes the community more appealing for people who want to move here, when we have these kinds of amenities.”
Within the village itself, the potential multi-use trail also could feed into another project elsewhere within the municipality that already is underway. A path installation is taking place along Highway 120, providing safe, off-road access to the Village Square, Mill Pond Park and nearly 450 households and businesses along Honey Creek Road.
The village recently applied for – and received – a Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) grant award from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to plan the logistics associated with such a project. Officials from the Village of Mukwonago and Town of East Troy also are participating in the first-stage review.
According to DOT documents, the agency plans to contribute $76,000 toward a planning study that will evaluate the project’s feasibility through its current 2024-28 funding cycle.
This is the second time the village and its partnering municipalities sought a TAP grant for the project. Suhm said the first attempt was instructive as next steps were contemplated.
“The feedback we got back (from the DOT) was it was such a large project,” Suhm said. “They wanted us to break it into segments, so that’s why, in this application cycle, we broke it into planning as the first phase.”
The goal, Suhm said, is to have the planning phase completed by early fall with the possibility of another TAP grant application rounding the bend late this year, depending on the outcome of the review that is underway.
“There is another TAP grant application cycle,” Suhm said. “Those will be due in October this year. We are hoping to have the planning portion done by that time and be able to align with another application.”
Speaking to the application process, Suhm said, “We haven’t decided if that’s going to be an application for design or design and construction. My guess is it will be broken down into design, and construction may even be broken into phases if this project becomes feasible.”
