Little Turtle Waterway Plaza

Little Turtle Waterway Plaza. . The Little Turtle Waterway Plaza was conceived and built to: Provide public access to the Wabash River, Serve as the trailhead park for the future Lail system in Logansport and Cass County, Provide instruments to help interpret local history, and Provide a staging area for local events., The original Master Plan for the Little Turtle Waterway was written and drawn up in 1988. It was funded $36,000, that the Logansport, City Council appropriated from the Eastgate Property Fund. Rundell Associates have been the landscape architects throughout this work., The 4.75 acres for this public park were donated by Conrail to the Little Turtle Waterway Corporation in 1991. The land is between the railroad right-of-way and the Wabash River, the confluence of the rivers four blocks to the west of this Gateway, and the intersection of the railroad lines two blocks to the east. The deed specifies that the land cannot be conveyed for profits., This Gateway is the old railroad signal bridge from the Pennsylvania RR track where it crosses old US 24 West. The bridge was taken down, rehabilitated and placed here in 1993 By Leo Brown Construction at a cost of $50,900, which was paid for with a grant from the Build Indiana Fund (Indiana Lottery)., Public hearings, surveys, environmental assessments, design development, construction documents, and title Insurance were all paid for with $166,851 Build Indiana dollars., Ceremonial ground breaking took place on a sunny February 14th, 1998. Construction of the Plaza was finished in the spring of 1999 and paid for with $1,126,233 from the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (federal highway enhancement money) and $281,558 from Build Indiana money. The project was built by Milestone Contractors, and was completed $51,545 under budget., The Little Turtle Waterway Corp presented the finished Plaza to the Logansport Board of Parks and Recreation in 1999, with the following restriction on the deed: The triangle between the Gateway and the Overlook walls is to remain flat, without the addition of any permanent structures or statues besides the future Statue of Chief Little Turtle. Logansport Board of Parks and Recreation Resolution 97-8 states that "so long as there is sufficient money in the maintenance fund, there will be no change in the concept or design of the Little Turtle Waterway Plaza.” The Little Turtle Waterway Plaza Maintenance Endowment Fund can receive donations at the Cass County Community Foundation. All of the profits from brick sales also go toward maintenance., Sets of as-built drawings are stored, with the Parks Department, the Mayor's office, and the Logansport Municipal Utilities office., This Pedestrian Crossing was built in 2002 with $128,000 from the Lilly Endowment Inc., following a recommendation from the Northern Indiana Community Foundation in 1998., Little Turtle Waterway Corp. members wish to express our gratitude to Senator Tom Weatherwax, who negotiated with Conrail for the donation of the land, secured $500,000 of Build Indiana funds, and worked tirelessly to smooth the many bumps in the path to the completion of this project., We wish to thank Jim Brugh, who donated many hours of legal work from March 1996 through June 2001 in a lawsuit with the several successive owners of the railroad, who opposed this Pedestrian Crossing across their right-of-way., We especially wish to thank the Miami Tribe of Indians of Indiana for their counsel, patience, support, and, most of all for their Ceremonial Dedication of the Plaza on May 29th, 1999., Now it is up to the Logansport Board of Parks and Recreation, the Citizens of Logansport and Cass County and all who use and enjoy this site, to protect this gift.