History
The Interurban Trail Advisory Council, a volunteer organization, has been responsible for many successes along the Ozaukee Interurban Trail including the original creation and development of the Trail. As its first success, the Ozaukee Interurban Trail Advisory Council garnered political and financial support to create the Ozaukee Interurban Trail, a 30-mile, paved, non-motorized transportation and recreation trail in Ozaukee County. Beginning in 2001 the Advisory Council was awarded a $1,075,805.00 grant to develop the now 30-mile trail. The Advisory Council members were also instrumental in negotiating a long-term license use agreement with We Energies, a local power utility that owns the historic right-of-way, for the development of a multi-use, non-motorized transportation and recreation trail. The following year the Council developed a “model” ordinance for this multi-jurisdictional trail and subsequent jurisdictional agreements between six incorporated jurisdictions (e.g. cities and villages), 3 unincorporated jurisdictions (e.g. towns), and the County. The Trail Advisory Council sponsored, organized and held an official opening ceremony for the Ozaukee Interurban Trail on Saturday, September 28, 2002.
More recently and perhaps most notably, a $1.76 million project that made significant improvements to the safety of users on the OIT is the bicycle/pedestrian bridge over County Highway W and Interstate 43. Completed in 2009, the bridge was part of a project that replaced approximately 2 miles of on-road trail with 1.3 miles of off-road trail including replacement of a dangerous stretch of trail along the busy, high-speed County Highway W. Led by the Interurban Trail Council and the Ozaukee County Planning and Parks Department, significant fundraising (~$350,000) and numerous grant awards including a WisDOT Congestion, Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) grant and two WDNR Stewardship grants made this project possible.
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