The Green River Trail Project Has Uncertainty Of Costs Or Sustainability
 It has taken many years for the current dream of some elected officials to construct a trail alongside North Green River Road to become a possibility. This trail that essentially if built will run from the intersection of Heckel Road and Green River Road to a location that appears to dead-end just south of the congested Lynch Road intersection.
On the first impression, this seems to be a proposal to spend a massive amount of TIFÂ (Tax Increment Financing) money. Â This project is projected to cost around $9 million-plus for a trail that essentially goes from Hecke Road and ends at a high traffic shopping area starting at Lynch Road with a side trip through an area of low-lying land with poor drainage and next to a heavily traveled road.
Trails are thought of by some as game changers in lifestyle that enhance growth and associated economic development. In reality, when located in safe and relevant neighborhoods that lend themselves to foot traffic, this can be true. It is hard to see the proposed trail being heavily used given its location. Evansville has a history of building trails that are used by very few people and failing to maintain them as has been pointed out near Garvin Park where the emergency call kiosks were not functional and crime flourished. Sustainability is not something that most politicians think about when the time comes to build something. Sustainability seems to be absent from the proposals for the “North Green River Trail” too.
The design for this trail has so far cost the taxpayers of Vanderburgh County $1,131,880 and the cost to construct it will be many times that. Building materials nationwide have increased by up to 100% due to shortages during the COVID19 pandemic and there is apparently no end in sight for both labor and materials price increases. What this means to this project is that any quote that is or will be forthcoming will have a pricing structure that should not be relied upon since local government cannot and never will have the capacity to conduct pricing by resolution. If this project moves forward there is a chance for a very large price overrun and the amount cannot be predicted.
In a report to the Vanderburgh County Redevelopment Commission dated February 28, 2020, literally days before the pandemic hit, a consultant’s analysis asserted that the total potential revenue from five TIF (Tax Increment Financing) districts had a margin of only $5.1 Million on a 16-year spending plan of $43.6 Million. This margin is only 12% and is in all likelihood already obsolete given the rapid inflation of construction costs in the last year. It does inspire the question of “can we look at this again, through the eyes of today’s reality instead of last year’s green new trail dream?â€
The issue of anticipated use and benefit to society has not been made available. It seems as though at least two of the Vanderburgh County Commissioners  (Cheryl Musgrave and Ben Shoulders) live by the mantra that all trials make things better and perhaps they are correct. The question is whether or not a small number of people will use these trials justifies spending such a large sum of money for their benefit. The added uncertainty of the real cost when shovel meets soil further complicates any decision that may be forthcoming.
It appears as though the businessman and Redevelopment Commissioner Wayne Kinney will be the deciding vote if the other four elected Vanderburgh County officials maintain their 2-2 gridlock that has lasted over a year. County Commissioners Musgrave and Shoulders seem to be carrying the progressive flag of all trails matter while County Commissioner Jeff Hatfield and County Councilman Jim Raben and Tom Shetler, Jr. seem to be locked into a position of non-support of this project on the basis of the overspending of TIFÂ (Tax Increment Financing) Districts dollars.
We will soon know if Redevelopment Commissioner Kinney has carried his business acumen with him into public service. We will also know if the two North Greenriver Road Trail supporters will heed the warnings of exhausting or overspending  TIF funds for a project of dubious value and uncertain costs.
The time is now to think about the changes that COVID-19 has wrought before running headlong into the most expensive and uncertain construction environment in history.
It’s time that reasonable people sit down and reason together.
I’d rather see the TIF money spent on this project instead of some inner City boondoggle.
I’d see more possibilibies in running the trail along Oak Hill Road from Heckel to Lynch. The trail could later be extended down Heckel to the Deaconess Sports Park, and/or southward down Oak Hill to Oak Hill Cemetery, which is the current terminus of the Hi-Rail Trail that runs along U.S. 41.
North Green River Rd. is becoming a heavily populated and trafficked corridor as more development springs up along that road, rendering it too noisy and busy for walkers and bikers.
But we should ask ourselves whether there are more worthy projects to direct the money toward, such as defraying the costs of the potable water system (including the treatment plant) or the sewer improvements, either of which would relieve some of the financial burden on the area’s citizens.
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