When Michele Irzyk decided to ride her bike along the new Vale Park West pathway on Friday, she didn’t expect to become the center of attention.
However, as the North Judson woman reached the west end of the concrete trail, she was applauded as the path’s first user following the official ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“I didn’t plan on biking today, but I thought I’d check it out,” Irzyk said. “I decided to jump on it because it was a nice day.”
Besides the fall colors and the bridge over Beauty Creek, she liked the path’s smoothness and scenery.
“I think it’s going to be a nice addition to the town,” she said.
Valparaiso Redevelopment Commission Executive Director Stu Summers said work on the path began about five years ago.
Jan Dick, who was both Valparaiso Councilman and head of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission’s Ped, Pedal and Paddle Commission at the time, said he became aware of funds available then.
There’d been talk about a trail that connected to with the existing Vale Park Road trail and would follow the planned Vale Park extension that will eventually connect the eastern portion with a section of the road in the west side’s growing developments.
Dick added that this is the first pathway that predates a road.
City Engineer Tim Burkman said the trail, which follows NIPSCO and water easements from Valparaiso High School west toward Froberg Road now connects the city to subdivisions where homes under construction are expected to reach 700.
“If you lived on this west side, the only way to and from it safely was by car,” Burkman said.
The city plans to install gates to block vehicles from the path and benches and trees along it.
Dick said that when the city ties into the Kankakee biking trail along Indiana 49, “we will eventually be a bicyclist’s destination.”
He foresees Chicagoans coming down on the South Shore line to bike and spend money.
City Manager Bill Oeding said that a property on the east side of the trail is already up for sale, and he expects more development along it because trails seems to bring development and improvements.
James D. Wolf Jr. is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
