By John Kiesewetter
Enquirer staff writer

WEST CHESTER TWP. - Township residents will be able to walk into the past by the end of the year.

A 1.5-mile hike and bike trail will be built along the old Miami-Erie Canal mule path from Ohio 747 in Port Union west to the Fairfield city limits.

The 10-foot-wide path will go past an aqueduct, under a Union Centre Boulevard bridge and past the stone foundation of the old Cullen Ice House, which shipped ice from a nearby pond to Cincinnati breweries, said Bill Zerkle, township parks director.

Fairfield and Butler County MetroParks officials plan to extend the path three miles, to MetroParks' 260-acre Gilmore Ponds Interpretive Reserve, he says.

A Clean Ohio Trail Fund grant will pay for 70 percent of the township's $354,136 paving bill, Zerkle says. The township's share will be $106,240. Construction should be finished by late November, he says.

Earlier this year, the township acquired the 31-acre ice house land northwest of the Union Centre Boulevard bridge over the old canal and CSX railroad.

Owner Dan Comer donated eight of the acres, which served as the township's match for a $233,000 Clean Ohio Fund grant from the Ohio Department of Public Works, says Chrisbell Bednar, parks development director.

The township plans a path from the bike trail to the ice house double stone walls, so the area could be used for picnics, Bednar says. There would be no access to the wooded property from Union Centre Boulevard, she says.

"It's turned out to be a great site, with Dan Comer's contribution. It's awesome," she says.

Port Union, two miles north of the Ohio 747/I-275 interchange, was so named because it was a major stop along the waterway. The Port Union Cafe is one of the oldest buildings in the township, Zerkle says.

In the 1800s, the Miami-Erie Canal was an important commercial artery linking Toledo with Cincinnati (Lake Erie and the Ohio River), offering an outlet for goods and products all the way to New Orleans.

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E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com