MONTEVIDEO -- One of the leading supporters of a Minnesota River Valley Trail is also one of the leading critics of the plan for it.
Geoff Hathaway, organizer of the Minnesota Trails Initiative, recently fired off a letter to Mark Holsten, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, to express what he termed his "extraordinary disappointment'' and "extreme frustration'' with the planning process.
In the letter, Hathaway criticizes the DNR for taking too long to develop the plan. It did not initiate public meetings on the trail plan until 2005, or four years after the state Legislature authorized the trail, he points out.
He is also critical of the decision by the DNR not to specify a route for the trail, particularly along the river from Wegdahl to Granite Falls.
The decision ignores the efforts by the Minnesota Trails Initiative and the Legislature, which made possible a $55,000 engineering study of the trail route now the focus of litigation between the city of Granite Falls and the three railroads owning the right of way, he said.
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Hathaway believes that had a trail plan been developed earlier, and had it included language supporting the proposed route along the railroad line, the current litigation over the Granite Falls-to-Wegdahl segment could have been averted.
It would have sent the message: "That's where we want our state trail,'' he said.
Hathaway said he has not heard a response from state officials to his letter.
The trail plan purposely did not identify a trail route, according to Laurie Young, DNR trail planning supervisor and author of the plan. She said the state will not identify any route until the land is obtained from willing sellers. The DNR does not have the power of eminent domain to acquire land for the trail and is committed to developing the trail on land where there are willing sellers, she said.
Last year, the District Court ruled that the city of Granite Falls could use its power of eminent domain to acquire an easement on the outer right of way owned by the Twin Cities & Western, Santa Fe Burlington Northern, and Canadian Pacific railroads. The route would follow a TC & W line for 8.2 miles on the north side of the Minnesota River from Granite Falls to Wegdahl, where it would connect with an existing 4.8-mile trail to Montevideo.
Attorneys for both sides have filed briefs with the Court of Appeals, and are awaiting the scheduling of a date for oral arguments, according to Kevin Stroup of Marshall, the attorney for the city of Granite Falls. Stroup said he did not believe the trail plan was relevant to the arguments in the litigation.
