A $20 million grant for NWI Thrive will help build out the Marquette Greenway and connect communities throughout Northwest Indiana.
The Lilly Endowment offered the grant to the four community foundations in Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.
Proposed projects include improved signage along trailheads, improved trail maintenance, development of new trails and educational campaigns and programs at Indiana Dunes National Park.
Gary and Michigan City are seen as cultural anchors for the park.
“Discover Hubs” at South Shore Line train stations will promote local businesses and events, offering a tourism boost for the local economy.
A new cultural trail in Michigan City will connect the new downtown train station to the Marquette Greenway, solidifying that city’s position as the eastern gateway to the national park.
“This grant is a testament to the power of collaboration. It recognizes the collective strength of our community coming together to create something great,” Legacy Foundation President and CEO Kelly Anoe said.
“This is part of a much larger vision that will ripple out across generations through projects like enhanced trails and new trail connections,” she said. “We will bridge communities and connect residents and visitors to the natural wonders of Northwest Indiana.”
Indiana Dunes National Park Superintendent Jason Taylor is excited about the grant, too.
It will not only help the park build its share of the Marquette Greenway that will stretch from Chicago to New Buffalo, Michigan, but also help with north-south trails that connect people to nature and communities.
“It brings nature right to their front door,” Taylor said.
People can bring their bikes to South Shore Line stations, ride their bikes to the beach or into shoreline communities, and take the train back home. In some places, they can rent bikes, too.
“We recognize that bikes would be a huge asset,” Anoe said.
David Wright, planning and marketing manager for Gary Public Transportation Corp., said bike rental is already available at the Gary Metro Center downtown and at the Miller station. Calumet College of St. Joseph and Indiana University Northwest are next, he said.
“We cannot talk more about connecting our community to this national treasure,” said Ellis Dumas, chief of staff for Gary Mayor Eddie Melton. “For so long we have not taken advantage of what is right in our backyard.”
“This is going to be one of the most influential build-upons as we transform into what it’s supposed to always have been, which is a very vibrant beneficial community for all people to come and thrive again,” Dumas said.
“Together, we are building a stronger Northwest Indiana,” Michigan City Mayor Angie Nelson Deuitch said.
“This investment is a game-changer for Michigan City, marking a pivotal step in shaping our future while honoring our past,” she said. “One of the most exciting developments is the creation of a unique cultural trail that will serve as the heart of our city’s connectivity. The trail will seamlessly link our new downtown train station – have you all seen the cranes in Michigan City? – to innovative mixed-use developments, to the Marquette Greenway. Along the way, visitors and residents will enjoy custom trailheads, interpretive signage that guide them to our city’s treasures positioning Michigan City as the eastern gateway to the national park.”
“Imagine a hub where everyone, residents and visitors alike, can easily access our stunning lakefront, vibrant shopping and dining options, our arts district, our world-class casino,” Nelson Deuitch said.
The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission has been a driving force for creating the 60-mile Marquette Greenway.
“That trail is all about connection, activating hubs and Gary and Michigan City, access to the Indiana Dunes and making that trail come alive,” Executive Director Ty Warner said. “You can see places all over this country that benefit from that kind of trail development connection.”
“We consistently hear people that move out to this region because of those assets and being able to access those trails,” he said. “This project just takes that and blows it even wider to be able to be a very high-powered system that would even attract more residents to this area and make this a much better, higher-quality place to live.”
NIRPC’s 2050-plus plan envisions a united, connected, vibrant region. The Lilly Endowment grant to NWI Thrive advances that plan not only with its spending but also by solidifying partnerships, Warner said.
“Most of all, it creates a vibrant region by injecting new energy into this place,” he said.
NIRPC is contributing a unified trail signage system to help people easily navigate the region.
Heather Ennis, president and CEO of the Northwest Indiana Forum, called the grant a bold step forward in shaping the future for the region’s natural amenities.
A previous Lilly Endowment grant provided the spark needed for the Ignite the Region effort to attract millions of dollars in investment in the region, including READI grants from the state.
That $18 million grant from Lilly Endowment in 1999 brought together the Legacy Foundation, Unity Foundation of LaPorte County, Crown Point Community Foundation and the Porter County Community Foundation, as well as the Center of Workforce Innovation, to focus on education.
“This is not our first rodeo,” Unity Foundation President Maggi Spartz said. “We have a history successful history of working together.”
That initiative created the Discovery Alliance.
“We reached well over 67,000 learners in Northwest Indiana,” Spartz said.
Bill Higbie, president of the Porter County Community Foundation, said he hopes amenities along the trail will develop as local firms locate along the corridor.
Higbie expects the effort will attract additional investment, public and private. “Projects like this usually do. We don’t think this will be any different. People want to be a part of something successful,” he said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
