Fort Wayne Trails Incorporated needs $1 million in donations to help the city connect four high-priority trails through a newly-launched Connecting 4 capital campaign.
According to a release Tuesday, those trails include the Hanna Street Trail, the Covington Road Trail, the “Golden Spike” section of the Pufferbelly Trail, and the Northeast Trail. Each one of these trails is in a different city quadrant.
Those four trails, when connected, would put Fort Wayne’s trail system within one-half a mile of 127,000 residents, 3,000 employers, 39 schools, and 40 parks.
The city of Fort Wayne is investing $8 million towards those four trail projects, and another $2.7 million is provided by a grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. But there’s still a $1 million need before construction can start, according to Fort Wayne Trails officials.
The announcement of the fundraising campaign came the same day that a WalletHub study named Fort Wayne as America’s worst city for recreation, based on entertainment and recreational facilities, as well as quality of parks.