Rails and Trails study gains momentum

Rails and Trails study gains momentum

Rocky Wilson

Wallowa County Chieftain

Published:November 12, 2014 11:18AM

Although not quickly, a feasibility study regarding the proposed Rails and Trails system between Joseph and Elgin is moving forward, and on December 3 and 4 workshops designed to encourage public input will be held in Wallowa and Enterprise respectively.

An 18-month feasibility study to learn both if and how a pedestrian-bicycle trail could be built alongside the 63-mile railroad line connecting Joseph with Elgin is not only underway, but picking up momentum.

The track and right-of-way is owned by the Wallowa Union Railroad Authority (WURA), the study is being conducted by students from Eastern Oregon University and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD), and recently a 24-person committee was formed to become a liaison between those performing the study and the general public.

The tentative completion target for the feasibility study is September 2015, after which the WURA Board of Directors will determine what, if any, on-the-ground action will follow.

In March 2014, several months before the feasibility study officially was launched on July 9, OPRD completed a section-by-section assessment of bridges, road crossings, and culvert crossings along the track. Since then, interviews of 26 adjacent landowners and impacted businesspersons – sessions ranging up to three hours in length – have been completed and documented, and dates for three workshops seeking public input have been set. Those dates are Tuesday, Dec. 2, at the Elgin Community Center; Wednesday, Dec. 3, at the Wallowa Senior Center; and Thursday, Dec. 4, at the Enterprise Senior Center.

A newly formed 24-member Trail Concept Review Committee first met Oct. 28 at the Wallowa Senior Center where representatives from State Parks and EOU shared new information, but took no public comments.

Because so many miles of the formerly abandoned railroad line pass through Wallowa County, 17 of the 24 members of the Review Committee are residents of this county. They are WURA board member Stephen Adams, Bob Aschenbrenner, Jody Berry, Pat Hines, Sara Miller, County Commissioner Susan Roberts, Nils Christoffersen, one unnamed city official, and Ted Freels, all of Enterprise; Mayor Dennis Sands, Brad Stephens, and Charlie Kissinger, all of Joseph; Mayor Vikki Knifong, Gordon Wolfe, and Mary Hawkins, all of Wallowa; plus Doug McDaniel and one unnamed city official, both from Lostine.

Dana Kurtz, project manager of the feasibility study and a student at EOU, studied findings from the 26 public interviews conducted by seven trained volunteers and discovered what had been anticipated. She said adjacent landowners were most polarized in their opinions regarding fears of incursions on their property and impacts on farming operations, while business owners foresaw positive economic gains.

In summary, Kurtz said the interviews, as a whole, “ … demonstrated cautious optimism the trail will be of benefit economically and to the quality of life.”

Conducting those interviews were volunteers Kurtz, Terry Edvalson, Sara Miller, Vicki Searles, Tim Funk, Diane Highberger, and Ed Schaul.

Interestingly enough, Kurtz reported that 25 of the 26 persons interviewed – chosen to be a representative sample of those who both endorse and oppose the Rail and Trail concept – said they would use the trail were it built.

OPRD Trails Coordinator Rocky Houston shared a PowerPoint slide presentation Oct. 28 in Wallowa documenting what has been learned thus far in the study, which officially began in mid-2014 at the Elgin Train Depot.

The summary from that OPRD-generated assessment notes that 79 road crossings, 44 bridges, and 212 culverts pass through the WURA right-of-way between Joseph and Elgin. The largest number of involved bridges, said Houston, are in the eight-plus mile stretch of railway line between Wallowa and Lostine. The Lostine-to-Enterprise track segment, more than 10 miles long, has the highest number of road crossings, 23. Of the 212 culverts along the entire 63-mile route, 71 cross the tracks in a 13-mile stretch between Elgin and Lookingglass.

Subject to change, the next meeting of the Trail Review Concept Committee will be Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015, when public opinion shared at the three public workshop sessions in December will be discussed.