County Park Board updated on Trails at Millpond

Members of the Marshall County Park Board received an update on The Trails at Millpond by Jeff Houin last week.

The County Park Board held its October meeting in the historic cabin in the Memorial Forest on Thursday. Houin said they have been keeping up with general maintenance including cutting trees that have fallen on the trails.  The planned work on the last section of the trail is not as far along as he had hopped.  At the time when the work was planned, there was too much rain and now that the weather is good everyone is too busy to get out. 

Houin asked about funds for the Trails and commented that the park board had approved for them to rent a mini excavator but he doesn’t think they will be able to do that work this year.  The committee wants to use the funds to purchase lumber now so it will be ready when the work starts. He said the final section of the trail is the steepest and will be for more advanced riders. Houin said this portion will be short and fast with large earth berms and wooden features to use the space.   He said heavier lumber will be needed to support the features. 

Park Board Secretary Deb VanDeMark said there is $1,000 in the Trails fund and $1500 in the supplies line.  The County Park Board approved $1,000 from the Millpond Trail Fund and $500 from the Supplies line with the claims turned in before the November meeting. 

Houin noted that there has been lots of use of the trails and he is seeing many posts on social media from people outside the county about the trails.

When asked if anything else is needed for the Trails Houin commented that they are looking at additional directional signage along the trails to show alternate lines for riders and would still like to create a GPS trail map.