Appeals won't stop work on rails-to-trails

MAC CORDELL
Press Staff Writer
Published December 18, 2002 11:36 AM CST

A local group is spending money to clean up a proposed trail site, even though the fate of the trail still is in the courts.

The Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails announced during Monday's meeting of the Madison County Parks Board that, despite an appeal being filed challenging ownership of the land, the group has spent $1,700 cleaning up the newly acquired section of former railroad bed.

Friends of the parks and trails president Wayne Roberts said the organization spent the money since Saturday, Nov. 16, picking up four dumpsters worth of trash on the 11-mile stretch of land that runs between South Charleston and London. He said also that the group has installed several security gates on sites west of London.

"These were sites where people could have potentially gone back to the trail and dumped," Roberts said. "Once we've got it cleaned up, we don't want to have to go back and clean it up again."

The commissioners told Roberts that Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails would be receiving a letter from the Madison County Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Pronai regarding the clean-up efforts.

"The letter will basically let them know that if they want to go on the trail and clean up debris, they can," Pronai explained. "At the road crossings, if they want to put some sort of barrier up to keep people from going down the trail or using the trail at this time they may."

Pronai said these measures would not be a problem even if the property owners won their appeal.

"They are not using bobcats, no backhoes, no all-terrains," Pronai said. "All they are doing is picking up trash. If they win their appeal, what they are going to end up with is a clean trail."

The appeals process has been a source of confusion for the Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails.

Clark County Judge Gerald F. Lorig ruled in favor of the Ohio to Erie Rails-to-Trails on Wednesday, Nov. 13. The rails-to-trails group paid the railroad company for the land and had it transferred into the group's name with the Madison County Recorder.

On Monday, Oct. 28, however, a notice of appeals was filed with the Clark County Common Pleas Court, giving official notice that an appeal would be filed by property owners who were opposed. Roberts said the Friends of the Madison County Parks and Trails did not know there had been a notice of appeal filed.

In November, Pronai said the rails-to-trails could do whatever they wanted with the property, but that there could be some issues if the property owners won their appeal. He said the two sides "would need to go back to court" to sort out the resulting complications.

The other issue raised is that of the project's time line. Roberts had hoped the trail could be finished sometime next summer, but the appeals process will take approximately four months to complete.

"There has been some confusion," Roberts said.

"But we have not been pushed back at all."

Roberts said that the work being done now is not really improvements to the trail, but is improvements to the community.

"Right now we are just cleaning up the trail, and that's good for the community," Roberts said.

Park board member Julia Cummings said she appreciated the clean-up that the volunteers have been doing and asked the commissioners if there were more the park board can do to help the group.

"I think we need to sit down and determine what part of the financial role the park board is going to play in the Rails to Trails project," Madison County Commissioner Robert Hackett answered.

He said that he would like to see how the court is going to rule, before major dollars are spent.

Commissioner David Dhume said that the park board needed to make some decisions before the court decision.

"We still need to sit down and logically think about the future and funding is part of the future," Dhume said.

The commissioners will meet with the volunteers tonight during the Friends of Madison County Parks and Trails monthly meeting.

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