A late winter squall kept most members of the Syracuse-Wawasee Trail Committee from venturing out for its regular monthly meeting Monday night. Only Sam Lehman, Donn Baird, Bob Trame and park superintendent Chad Jonsson started the meeting. Dr. Tom Edington and Jerry Wright arrived a bit late.

Without a quorum, the group was able to discuss issues, but not vote on them.

Jonsson noted the trail committee has been asked to provide members to a couple of different bike committees such as the Tour de Bikes and Kosciusko County Bike Committees.

During a review of the financial report, Jonsson reported he made a request to withdraw $550 from the committee’s PayPal account and transfer the funds to another account. Baird, who is the committee treasurer, and Jonsson explained without tying funds to an individual Social Security number or other personal information, the trail committee is limited to withdrawing $500 a month from the PayPal account. Jonsson noted in the future if there are several months worth of funds, the matter may need to be reviewed.

Baird reported there is about $160,000 in the trail committee’s account.

Trame said the cost of Northshore/Eastshore drives would be about $110,000 depending on any unknown issues that may pop up.

Trame made a maintenance report. He spoke to Larry Mock about trimming brush back along the bike path down along Pickwick Drive. Plans are to have Mock, who owns heavier equipment, trim the brush and trees back three times a year: Memorial Day, July Fourth and Labor Day. Mock would like $85 an hour for the work.

Trame also spoke to Wright, prior to the meeting, about the Syracuse Lions Club being interested in adopting a section of trail. Wright told him the Lions would be interested in the section from the railroad tracks to Glenn Slabaugh’s house. Slabaugh did a lot of behind the scenes work on the trail. His wife has also a requested a memorial bench be placed on their property along the bike path.

The next meeting of the Syracuse-Wawasee Trail Committee will be at 6 p.m. Monday, March 17, at the Syracuse Community Center, 1013 N. Long Dr. The meeting is open to the public.

(For a more in-depth account of the meeting, see this week’s issue of The Mail-Journal.)