Vol. 40, No. 3
PO Box 603, Wabash, IN 46992 (260) 563-8326
of Wabash County Inc. April 5, 2017
www.thepaperofwabash.com Proudly Serving Wabash County Since 1977
Trail hits stumbling blocks County orders worked stopped; Duke Energy won’t approve plans By Joseph Slacian jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com
A stop work order was issued last week to officials of the Wabash River Trail, Wabash County Plan Commissioner Mike Howard told The Paper of Wabash County. The order, which Howard said he issued on March 20, is because the group worked on a boat ramp near the bridge on State Road 524 without having received proper permitting. River Trail officials filed the permit requests with the DNR; however, official approval has not yet been received for the work. “It was their only violation,” Howard said. “We discussed it with the DNR and determined this was the best course of action.” The stop work order means that any work pertaining to the flood plain area cannot be done until the stop work order is lifted, he said. The group has filed permits with the county to create restroom facilities and a pavilion in
downtown Lagro, Howard said. Because those are not near the flood plain, those projects are not affected by the stop work order. The DNR, on Monday, April 3, approved the request for work on the Lagro boat ramp. Howard told The Paper that he had not yet received paperwork about the permit, but once it is will received the Wabash County Plan Commission will consider whether it will life the stop work order. He said the board must consider if there are other issues it might be concerned with before deciding whether to issue a local permit. The Plan Commission meets at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 6. In the meantime, the group could face fines for working on the site without the permits. Fines would be up to the DNR on a state level and from the Wabash County Commissioners and Wabash County Plan Commission locally, Howard said. On Friday, Wabash River
Trail officials also received word from Duke Energy that the utility will not agree to the current plans it has to extend the trail from Lagro to Wabash. In fact, Duke spokesperson Angeline Protogere told The Paper that the utility wasn’t aware of the final plan until after the work was started. “Our asset protection group, which oversees our easements, was not aware of the final plans or details of this project prior to the work beginning,” she wrote in a prepared statement. “We were contacted by the trail’s design firm in September 2015 for information on trails in utility easements, and we provided our guidelines. They shared a preliminary route option with us, but we did not receive any final detailed plans or a request to approve them. “We became aware that the project was underway during one of our routine helicopter patrols in February. We have since been contacted by the design firm with their plans and have explained the easement
A retaining wall placed along the Wabash River Trail in Lagro may have to be removed under orders from Duke Energy. Photo provided
and issues involved. “In respect to our easement, while we can allow the portion of the project that replaces the existing Basin Street, we cannot approve the remainder of the trail in our easement as currently proposed.” That, she said, includes a retaining wall near the Lagro Little League baseball diamonds. The exception for Basin Street, Protogere told The Paper on Monday, is because “Basin Street has existed for decades in our easement, and although we would not permit its construc-
tion there under our guidelines today, we are only agreeing to replacing the street with a trail in the Basin Street area—there is no change of scope or extension of what was already there. We cannot agree, however, to the parts of the project outside of Basin Street as currently proposed.” Under Duke’s guidelines for trails, which Protogere provided, “a minimum separation of 25 feet is required between the trail and its associated easement, to any Duke Energy electrical facility. This includes, but (continued on page 17)
Piece of city’s history lost in Yarnelle fire By Emma Rausch emma@thepaperofwabash.com
A truck was stuck in a field last week along the site that Duke Energy is installing new powerlines. Photo by Emma Rausch
Powerline work damages field By Emma Rausch emma@thepaperofwabash.com Duke Energy’s transmission line project across Wabash County farmland north of U.S. 24 is progressing, but not without creating a few ruts. Work on the five-mile line began in January on the project’s east end,
near County Road 100 East, and has since traveled west to connect to the Wabash Chippewa Substation. However, the work hasn’t been entirely considerate of affected landowners, according to Latheda Metzger, Wabash County landowner. Metzger, whose property is located on County Road 150 West just north of
Brainard Excavating, reported to The Paper of Wabash County that one of the company’s utility vehicles was stuck in her field after it had sunk due to wet soil. “This is what happens when eminent domain occurs,” she said. Metzger explained that her family (continued on page 4)
The Yarnelle Lumber Co. was destroyed Wednesday, March 8, and with it, Wabash lost 154 years of history. Fire engulfed the historic business, located at 295 W. Canal St., within a matter of minutes just before 5 p.m. on March 8. While the cause of the fire has still yet to be determined as of Thursday, March 30, high winds were partially to blame for the lumber yard’s destruction, according to Ken and Jill Yarnelle, business owners. “We don’t know what happened, but those were the highest winds they’ve seen in three years down there I think they said,” Yarnelle told The Paper of Wabash County. “I think the winds caused it because I’ve never heard anything like that in my fuse panel or my building ever. So something happened somewhere and…” “The winds took a fire that probably wouldn’t have been so devastating and made it devastating,” Mrs. Yarnelle added. (continued on page 4)