Steve and Kristen Poynts have been waiting for the Monon Trail to reach their Westfield neighborhood for eight years.
The couple live in the Westfield Farms subdivision near where Carmel's Monon Greenway ends at 146th Street, but they never use it because they find it difficult to get to with four small children, ages 7 years to 8 months. Now that Westfield has started extending the trail north, it will practically be in their backyard.

"I've been waiting for them to do it," said Kristen, 30, as she manned a garage sale at her home Monday afternoon. "It's hard for us with four kids. But I think people want it there because they'll use it."

The 10-mile Monon Trail runs from 10th Street to 96th Street in Marion County and continues into Hamilton County, where it connects with the five-mile Monon Greenway. Westfield's trail will be three miles long by next spring, and possibly eight miles long within five years.

Westfield began constructing the first leg of its portion of the trail Friday. The one-mile section is now being built from 146th Street north to 156th Street.

The first section -- paid for with a $1.5 million grant from the federal government and a $250,000 grant from Lilly Endowment -- is expected to be completed by the end of November, said Carrie Cason, the city's community relations director.

The second leg, which is scheduled to be completed by next spring, would extend the trail north for about two more miles from 161st Street to Ind. 32. A $900,000 grant from the Department of Natural Resources will cover this portion.

Cason said the city received the federal grant in 2002, and the longer timeline has generated more fees and a higher cost for the first leg.

The section from 156th Street to 161st Street was paved by Precedent Cos., a private developer that built Viking Meadows subdivision. Company founder Howard Peterson, 78, donated 13 acres for the trail. Peterson, Westfield, is the father of former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson.

Within the next five years, Westfield officials hope to extend the Monon to 216th Street, Cason said. A loop of the trail from 161st will wind off the path northeast to Union Street to connect with the Midland Trace Trail in Westfield's renovated downtown.

Cason said the timeline for this portion depends upon the completion of the U.S. 31 upgrade; the development of Lantern Commons, the city's first major mall at 161st Street and U.S. 31; and the city's plans for redeveloping its downtown.

Extending the Monon Trail into Westfield is a first step in what local leaders see as critical to the city's economic future.

The idea is to create a Grand Junction Plaza, a downtown destination hot spot, where an intersection of the Monon and the east-west Midland trail will connect in the next five years.

"The goal of what we're doing is to create a downtown that is the centerpiece of community life in Westfield," said Jim Anderson, co-chairman of a private group of residents who've been brainstorming the project.

Anderson views Westfield's new downtown as a trails community with "as little vehicular conflict as possible," where residents can walk, bike, run or operate golf carts from their neighborhoods.

As David, 52, and Lori Pierson, 37, Carmel, walked on the trail Monday near Rohrer Road, they said they looked forward to one day visiting Westfield's new downtown.

The couple run, walk, bike or skate on the Monon Greenway at least once a day.
"We think it's great," David Pierson said. "We're looking forward to that extension because we'd be able to go all the way to Broad Ripple and all the way to Ind. 32 in one day."