Wednesday, July 17, 2024
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Serving Kosciusko County and parts of Elkhart, Marshall & Noble Counties Know Your Neighbor . . . . . . . . 2➤ Nappanee Area News . . . . . . . 6 Elkhart County Fair . . . . . 7-9
Vol. 54, No. 4
Milford (574) 658-4111 • Warsaw (574) 269-2932 • Syracuse (574) 457-3666
114 W. Market, Warsaw, Indiana 46580
READY TO RACE — Members from the Kosicusko County Velo will be bicycling across Iowa this month. Members making the trip include, pictured from left, Fred Helfrich, Mike Cusick, Rob Bishop, Vaughn Latham, Greg Demopoulos and Tom Wogoman. Photo by Nathan Pace.
Fred Helfrich turns retirement into
BICYCLE ADVOCACY By NATHAN PACE Staff Writer At the age of 76, Fred Helfrich can still be seen around Kosciusko County enjoying his favorite method of transportation. Helfrich is active in both advocating for bicycle trails and safety while also riding them himself. Helfrich is active with the Kosciusko County Velok and is also on the board of directors for Bicycle Indiana. “We’ve done a lot over the last dozen years or so. We’ve gotten ourselves designated as a bicycle friendly community for Warsaw and Winona Lake. We just resubmitted our application for that,” Helfrich said. Helfrich says advocacy is a key piece of what the KCV aims to do when it comes to establishing trails and making area infrastructure safer for bicyclists to travel. He admits Warsaw can be a tricky area for cyclists given the lakes, railroads
and highways that can box cyclists in. “Making sure there are proper crossing infrastructures along that US 30 route, otherwise you have barriers. We already have enough barriers. We have two railroad tracks. The railroad companies don’t like you crossing their tracks with a bicycle. You have three lakes in the city. Those present physical barriers.” One of his goals is to help connect Warsaw to the Great American Rail-Trail, a trail for cyclists to traverse America from Washington D.C. to Seattle. In Indiana, the trail will reach nearby Rochester before pivoting northwest to Chicago. “We are in a prime spot to connect,” Helfrich said. In addition to advocacy, Helfrich is still riding his bicycle great distances. He regularly participates in the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa and has no plans to slow down after retirement. Helfrich was a financial advisor at SYM Financial Advisors for 40 years.
“I loved bicycles. I’ve been involved with them before I retired. I did this ride across Iowa nine times from 2000 to 2010. I will do that again this year,” Helfrich said. The cycle ride through Iowa takes seven days and makes stops in rural towns. One town is Greenville, Iowa, a town the bikers want to give back to after it took a direct hit from a tornado in May. “Their population is 2,600. Small town, rural community but yet they are going to set up and host 15,000 people for lunch as they passed through,” Helfrich said. Fred will be joined by fellow KCV members in Mike Cusick, Rob Bishop, Vaughn Latham, Greg Demopoulos and Tom Wogoman on the trip. They hired a company that will charter their gear during the trip. One aspect Helfrich enjoys is his bike with an electric assist so he can stay up with the younger cyclists. Continued on page 4