MM_072017

14 | July 20, 2017 | The Mokena Messenger news
mokenamessenger.com
Old Plank Road Trail gets 20th anniversary present
Submitted by the Forest
Preserve District of Will
County
The new Old Plank Road
Trail (OPRT) Bridge over Interstate
80 in New Lenox is
up and running, and the old
bridge has been removed just
in time for the path’s 20th anniversary.
The modern, more aesthetically
pleasing bow
truss bridge was installed
in two phases this spring.
The Illinois Department
of Transportation replaced
the old bridge, which dated
back to 1964, as part of its
plan to improve and widen
the I-80/Route 30 interchange
sometime in the future.
The bridge will make trips
on the OPRT even more appealing
to runners, hikers and
bicyclists, said Ralph Schultz,
chief operating officer for
the Forest Preserve District
of Will County, which owns
and manages portions of the
trail along with six other governmental
agencies.
The OPRT has been a
popular path ever since the
first 12-mile section opened
two decades ago on July 19,
1997. That first trail section
stretched from Western Avenue
in Park Forest to the
Forest Preserve District’s
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These two photos show the previous Old Plank Road Trail Bridge, which dated back to 1964, and the new one, which was
installed by the Illinois Department of Transportation over Interstate 80 in New Lenox this spring. Photos Submitted
Hickory Creek Preserve –
Hickory Creek Junction in
Mokena. Subsequent trail additions
pushed the path west
into New Lenox and Joliet.
The most recent extension
brought the trail a mile farther
east to Chicago Heights
for a total trail length of 22
miles.
Plans for creating the path
date back to the 1970s when
the Forest Preserve worked
with 14 municipalities to try to
gain ownership of the defunct
Penn Central railroad line. It
took around 20 years for the
group to get the funding necessary
to buy the rail route and
there was opposition by some
along the way. But trail proponents
persevered and the
OPRT became a reality.
Success with the OPRT
paved the way for other regional
trails and trail conversion
projects, Schultz said.
“The OPRT was our first
regional trail, our first rail-totrail
conversion and our first
project funded with federal
transportation funding,” he
said in a statement.
The Forest Preserve went
on to convert two other former
rail lines into the Wauponsee
Glacial Trail and the
Joliet Junction Trail. But
the OPRT project was the
first in Will County to capitalize
on a defunct rail line
that dated back more than a
century.
“From 1855 until 1975 the
Michigan Central Railroad
ran freight and passenger
trains along this route,” according
to the trail’s website,
oprt.org. “Before that it was
a plank road and part of the
Great Sauk trail that ran from
Rock Island to Detroit.”
Will County continues to battle opioid epidemic
Federal grant
extends to Year 2
Submitted by the Office of
the Will County Executive
For the second year, Will
County was awarded the
Prescription Drug/Opioid
Overdose Related Deaths
grant by the Illinois Department
of Human Services
and funded by the Substance
Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration to
further its efforts in combating
the opioid overdose epidemic.
Will County is part of
the Statewide Illinois Opioid
Crisis Advisory Council.
Kathleen Burke, the County’s
director of substance use
initiatives, said Will County
has made significant progress.
The grant-funded Narcan
Distribution Program
has trained 168 people between
February and June.
Each person trained received
two free doses of Narcan.
In 2016, all police departments
in Will County were
trained to deliver naloxone,
the life-saving antidote that
can reverse an opiate overdose.
To date in 2017, naloxone
has been deployed 16
times compared to 16 times
total in 2016.
Burke said the Will County
strategy against the opiate
epidemic includes prevention,
harm reduction,
treatment and long-term
recovery services. She is
conducting an inventory of
school programs offered in
Will County and treatment
services, including access to
Medical Assisted Treatment.
“To facilitate access to
treatment, we have worked
with five police departments
across the county to
establish a Safe Passage
program, in which someone
who struggles with an opiate
addiction can come into the
police department and ask
for help without fear of prosecution,”
she said.
Despite all of these efforts,
overdose deaths are increasing
because of fentanyl — a
powerful synthetic opioid
that is similar to morphine
but is 50 to 100 times more
potent.
“Drug dealers are mixing
heroin with fentanyl, and
people have no idea what
they are getting,” Burke
said. “It is so powerful, it
often takes more than one
or two doses of Narcan to
revive someone who has
overdosed from fentanyl or
a fentanyl-laced substance.
We have a lot of work to do
to continue to educate about
the dangers of opiates, train
the public on the use of naloxone
and expand access to
treatment.”
Will County Executive
Larry Walsh praised Burke
and the County’s efforts to
address the epidemic. He
said additional funding will
be critical.
“We are thankful to the
federal government for recognizing
the success of our
efforts and the fact there
is much more work to be
done,” Walsh said. “This
battle is on a grass roots level,
and Dr. Burke has been
very effective in building
partnerships to help expand
our efforts and save as many
lives as we can. Will County
remains fully committed to
stopping overdose deaths
and educating the public
about the dangers of these
terrible substances.”