Rails-to-Trails: Step one: Cleaning up 'the dump'

MAC CORDELL
Press Staff Writer
Published November 20, 2002 12:05 PM CST

The Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails wasted little time getting to work on the newly acquired land that will complete the portion of the Ohio to Erie Trail from South Charleston to London.

The cost for the Madison County section of the project will cost about $2 million. The group paid $75,000, mainly to the Norfolk-Southern Railroad Corp., for the 11-mile stretch of abandoned railroad line.

The payment was made on Thursday afternoon and by Saturday morning the group was on the soon-to-be-trail cleaning up and making pre-construction preparations to what had become a dump.

"It is kind of like an open dump site," said the group's Wayne Roberts. "The last time I was out there, I don't think there was as much trash out there. We probably had 60 cubic yards of trash."

Madison County Commissioner Chris Snyder said that the piling trash is a downward-spiraling issue.

"Once it looks like a dump," Snyder said, "people will use it as a dump."

Commissioner David Dhume said having the trail in place would offer an opportunity to keep the grounds monitored and clean.

"I think we have known for a while that those rails have been used as a dump," Dhume told them. "One of the benefits of converting those rails to this is that those sites are now exposed and will be exposed. I think you have already done a good job cleaning that up. It is going to be an ongoing problem. Our hope is that it will decrease as time goes on."

Despite the praise from the commissioners, Roberts still understands the potential for an appeal that would put the process back on hold. However, he feels that the cleanup is not premature.

"I do not feel like this was premature at all," Roberts said yesterday. "The opportunity for the appeals process will be over in a day or two. I think this is good preliminary work. This is good to let people know that we are serious about the trail.

"I really don't know why they haven't appealed yet. That is really up to the other side. We hope they won't appeal, but that is their right yet."

He said that, despite some setbacks, the trail is being completed, slowly. Preliminary work is being done now and bridges will be bid out over the winter. Construction is set to begin in the early spring.

He said that he would like to have the portion of the trail from South Charleston to London completed by next July for the bicentennial bike ride over the trail. Roberts said he feels the trail, more realistically, could be done by late summer or fall of next year.

"That would be a great opportunity for Madison County to show what we have done," Roberts said. "If everything goes smoothly, there is a chance we could have it ready for July. I'd like to see that, but it is a long shot."

Roberts said the completion of this section of trail would cost approximately $2 million. He also said that the lawsuit had depleted much of the Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails' funding.

"It is a shame that this was a waste of people donating their money to be used in a court case when they would rather that the money was used for asphalt," Roberts said.

Roberts discussed the possibility of having scout groups as well as other civic organizations volunteer to help keep the trail either on a one-time or a permanent arrangement.

He asked also that the park board and the friends as well as other interested parties get together to discuss a chain of command.

Roberts said there is a communications pole leaning against a switch box in the trail area. He was hoping for guidance from a group as to what they would like done, but more importantly the procedure that is to be used for decision making.

"At this point, we are just happy to be moving forward," Roberts said. "It feels great.

"It is kind of like water building up behind a dam. When it is finally let loose, it is hard to stop. We are just really pleased."

Mac Cordell can be contacted at (740) 852-1616, 1-800-282-3838 or by e-mail at news2@madison-press.com