City officials now have a plan for a future build-out of Shelbyville's bike-pedestrian trail, thanks to group of civil engineering students from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

The four students presented their concept using a slideshow at the Board of Works meeting on Tuesday in City Hall, 44 W. Washington St.

City Engineer Matt House said the plan includes extension of the trail from Amos Road, through a parcel of land owned by the city north of State Road 44, then bridging the Little Blue River and on into the south portion of Blue River Memorial Park.

Following the Board of Works meeting, House said the idea is a work in progress.

“It's not in our immediate plans to do this, and we have to connect a couple of other pieces first. But our initial reaction is, we think it's a great idea and we'd like to do it at some point. The big thing is that bridge they're proposing is a lot smaller than the one we were assuming we would need. That bridge of their's is at $200,000, and the bigger bridges, if you completely get out of the floodplain, are 200 feet versus 100 feet, and those are $600,000 to $800,000,” he said.

The plan itself, however, didn't cost the city anything except mileage reimbursement for the students; Rose-Hulman approached the city about having the students do a project, House said.

Board of Works members and other city officials applauded the students' presentation. House said he hopes to have the budget to implement the plan in a couple of years.

In other matters, the board dismissed a nuisance property complaint about 1009 S. Tompkins St. after the owner cleaned up the yard.

For another nuisance property case, the board ordered that the city clean up 1029 S. Tompkins St. and bill the owner.

And the board directed that the owner of 407 Eberhart Dr. appear in 2 weeks to address the condition of her property.

In two dog bite cases, the Board of Works released a dog owned by Nathan Ridge after he raised the height of a fence in his yard. The board gave him 2 weeks to have his dog vaccinated for rabies.

And the owner of a dog at 911 Hale Road, Lot 75, in the Westar mobile home park will send the dog to live with friends in Waldron. Westar management banned the dog from the park.

The board also approved street closings for the St. Joseph Catholic Church festival on May 9–11.