News & Updates All »
BOIL ORDER: College Avenue and Westwood Road
Monday, April 22, 2024
This boil order has been canceled. On Monday, April 22, a boil order was issued for the area south of College Avenue to Westwood Road. This area includes Goshen Hospital, part of the Historic Racemere Peninsula Neighborhood, and Goshen College west of 9th Street. A map of the affected area can be... more
CITY OF GOSHEN TO PARTICIPATE IN MAY FIRST FRIDAY GREEN DAY CELEBRATION
Monday, April 22, 2024
The City of Goshen Environmental Resilience Department is partnering with Downtown Goshen to host May’s First Friday Green Day Celebration on Friday, May 3. The event, centered on the courthouse lawn, will feature activities and educational tables from city departments, partners, and local businesses. “We’re... more
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Conduct Community Interviews
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
The City of Goshen strives to take the best care for residents and to ensure our drinking water meets all U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) safety requirements. As part of this process, the EPA will conduct community interviews... more
Upcoming Events All »
Downtown Goshen Economic Improvement District
Thursday, May 2, 2024, 7:45am
The regular meetings of the Downtown Goshen Economic Improvement District Board will take place on the first Thursday of each month, excepting July, as set forth in the schedule below. The meetings will be held in the conference room located in Goshen City Hall at 202 South 5th Street, Goshen, Indiana. All meetings of the Goshen Downtown Economic Improvement District Board are open to the public with the exception of an executive session that may be held as authorized by Indiana Code §5-14-1.5-6.1. The Board may schedule meetings in addition to those listed above as necessary, subject to public notice requirements.
Board of Works
Thursday, May 2, 2024, 4:00pm
To join the webinar please copy and paste this link on your browser: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88469251269
Park Board Meeting
Monday, May 6, 2024, 4:00pm
Public may join in person or virtually by following this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89736482570
Ashley VanVurst Sensory Trail
E-Blog Climate Action Forestry Electric Vehicles Zero Waste Sensory Trail
Ashley VanVurst Sensory Trail
What is it all about? The City of Goshen, ADEC, Inc. and Goshen College partnered to connect persons with disabilities to the natural environment's physiological and psychological benefits by utilizing technology. The project provides supportive tools where persons with disabilities can interact with nature in an immersive and physical way. This project was the first known of its kind to utilize technology to connect residents and visitors to a local community’s natural environment and its vibrant community of living things through the creation of a free downloadable app of natural living things on a trail system and the utilization of an online camera system connected to natural areas in the community. The downloadable app can be used while walking down the trail where it utilizes global positioning mapping to show the user's location and the location of living features on the trail or from the comfort of a person’s home.
1. Use technology to transform an existing nature trail into a sensory trail, using a free and downloadable app on Apple Play and Google Play stores (Ashley VanVurst Sensory Trail) to highlight natural “living” sensory features on the trail
2. Provide technology access to persons who do not have internet devices through an iPad lending library located at the Rieth Interpretative Center. 10 iPads are available typically from Monday-Thursday 8:00 am - 4:00 pm and Friday 8:00 am - 3:00 pm. Guests can call ahead to ensure open hours and availability (574) 534-0076.
3. Install three 24-hour nature cameras accessible to the public and those who are unable to go to nature. These are available on YouTube.
Why is this project important? This project provides safe access to all 
persons with disabilities to the psychological and physiological benefits of nature, physically or virtually, contrasted to the recent pandemic's confinement and lack of connection to the outside world.
The City of Goshen partnered with ADEC, Inc. to develop this project for persons with disabilities who often struggle with the constraints of their disability, either physical or mental, to access natural spaces. This is even more injurious as the natural environment is a unique health affirming medicine that could improve their lives. Science has consistently documented the positive benefits of interacting with nature, including lower stress, better mood, increased concentration ability, and others. Persons with disabilities not only can be restricted from accessing the natural environment through physical accessibility issues but can be constrained by mental disabilities such as increased anxiety, depression, and sensory sensitivity that make it difficult for them to enter those spaces.
This project was designed to provide opportunities for safe, interactive outings for recreation or therapy for all persons with disabilities. It provides a background interface with information including, for example, length of the trail, location of the bathrooms, location of hazards, and location of benches for resting all mapped with the users location. It also allows users to select the sensory aspects or natural features that are most interesting or beneficial to them, while helping them to get outside and benefit from the positive physical changes that occur from being in the natural environment.
What i
s the trail design? The Goshen trail system has 30 miles of trail with over 8 of those miles being in or beside natural areas. The project selected four of those miles that feature open, calm areas, water, and natural habitats to become the basis for the Ashley VanVurst Sensory Trail, learn, relax and engage the senses. Two miles traversed across the north side of the City (MapleHeart Trail) and two miles traversed north-south through the heart of the City (Millrace Trail).
The goal was not to develop new spaces but to get residents to focus on and appreciate the natural habitat that already exists in Goshen. To that end, the Naturalist Team cataloged over 900 natural “living” sensory features, including over 600 unique features, already existing along the trail. They also logged hazards, rest areas, bathrooms, signs, bridges, and trail activities to create a database of information to go into the app. The City plans to continue to add to the database with community member participation.
This project also included adding a few amenities to the trail to specifically pro
vide activities and accommodations for persons with disabilities, including physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities and persons with mental health challenges. The trail design would need to stimulate sensory systems and include things that are tactile (touch), visual (sight), proprioceptive (body awareness), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste), auditory (sound), and meditative. Many of these were already offered as a part of the features identified in the natural areas of the trail and are identified in the app. However, proprioceptive and meditative activities did not specifically exist on the nature trail.
ADEC, Inc. therapists identified a specific list of features that could provide these sensory stimuli and improve the experience for persons with disabilities. The additional items included a physical pathway or design where persons would be able to work on balance and coordination, an area with color and visual design, a handicapped-accessible swing, an area where herbs could be harvested and used in cooking, areas for relaxation or meditation, a water feature where people could hear moving water and possibly touch it, and a space where people could make their own music, such as chimes or drums.
Given the budget and the timeline, the following additional items were incorporated into the current design, interactive artwork paintings on the trail that provide recreational and body balance activities, a chalk-the-walk activity where the public has access to chalk to decorate walks, a catch a butterfly (insect) activity and net check-out, a wheelchair-accessible glider, an interactive pondless water feature, and meditation spots along the trails.
The wheelchair-accessible glider is a feature that allows the entire family to participate. It was chosen for its safety rating and can be operated unsupervised as playground equipment. The pondless water feature was also designed with safety in mind. It uses biological filtration and was designed to allow interaction and “play.” It also serves those who want to just sit and enjoy the sound of the waterfalls.
How is the app 
designed? The programming team, two senior Computer Science students from Goshen College with their CS professor acting as a consultant to the project, used the database and created a free downloadable app (Apple Play and Google Play) to connect users to the sensory features along the trail. The app allows users to select the types of features they would like to see (insects, flora, fauna, fish, bacteria/fungi, amphibians, reptiles, mammals) or the senses they would like to use (see, hear, smell, touch, taste). The app then populates a GPS map with the user's selections but limits the number of total selections populated on the map to four per two-tenths of a mile to keep the person walking and exploring the trail. It also randomizes the selections so the user has a unique experience every time. 
The app acts as the portal to the sensory trail. The 900+ currently identified features are not identified on the trail itself. The app leads the user to the feature using an integrated GPS map where the selected features and trail amenities are displayed. The user is led to within ten feet of the feature, or where a living thing was found (mammals, amphibians, or others), where the user must look for the feature given the clues in the app. The app provides pictures, a description, a video, and sometimes an audio recording (birds, amphibians).
The app was designed to provide a “safe” platform for persons with disabilities and especially sensory sensitivities to enjoy being outside. It was designed utilizing a calm (neutral) color palette, providing warnings of potential hazards (zone alerts), including areas of road hazards, uneven surfaces, areas of extensive poison ivy, or the existence of poison hemlock for examp
le. The zone alerts can be easily updated to accommodate changing conditions on the trail. Other accessibility features include the ability to enlarge font sizes, enlarge or pop-out photos, high contrast color scheme, and the ability to utilize the device’s Voiceover accessibility features to read content to those who are visually impaired or unable to read.
The app features professional artwork and uses positive or neutral sensory colors including green, teal blue, blue, purple, black, and white. Brighter colors such as yellow and orange are muted or used in limited ways. Bright pink with a yellow exclamation mark stands out and denotes hazards in each zone, where applicable. Red is not used on the app for any application.
The app is designed to be easily updated. The City has complete access to the database. Changes to the database are updated in real-time within the app. The app was also written with the intent for the code (not artwork) to be shared with other communities that might be interested in a similar app. The City plans to continue to add to the database with community volunteers both by adding features and including additional pictures and information.