Chesterton Tribune

Ashamed of Chesterton Park trail building

Back to Front Page
 

 

 
 

 

 

Voice of the People

It was a beautiful day. My 14 year old son and I were riding the bike trail. We headed west from Chesterton enroute to Portage. Almost everyone we passed gave us some type of acknowledgement and friendly greeting. We saw cyclists, roller bladers, joggers, walkers and a friend pushing her son in a stroller.

We turned around at Samuelson Rd. in Portage and headed back. When we got back into town to 19th St. we decided to part our ways since my son had other commitments (as most teenagers do!). I took my bike home and decided to go back and walk the trail since I lived so close. I walked east, again from 19th St. towards Jackson Blvd. when I came upon the building on the north side of the trail, and I thought of all of the visitors we get using the trial from other towns.

Imagine this: you start your journey from the west end of the bike trail, (forgive me if I’m wrong, but I believe is somewhere in or near Hobart, IN) or from anywhere west of Chesterton. You want to go all the way to the east end of the trail (and, of course, back). You are almost to the end. You pass 19th St. and your face lights up at the sight of which appears to be a nice building that probably is a restroom with a drinking fountain. As you pull up or get to it your face turns from joy to a look of disappointment and then disgust. You see the doors deadbolted shut and covered with graffiti and the drinking fountain that looked so good from a distance was filled with garbage and obviously not maintained for quite some time. They say to themselves, “This is Chesterton?”

Is this the welcome we want to give our visitors, our guests? I can’t imagine it is. For that moment I couldn’t say that I was proud to be a citizen here.

I can only hope that this message will reach the proper people in this town and that it may result in an improvement that will benefit not only our visitors but us as citizens also.

Concerned citizen

Gwen Lane

 

Posted 7/3/2006

 

 

Google
 
Web chestertontribune.com

Â