Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Except for a misstated phrase in a provision at the Washington state House of Representatives, a 135-mile section of the John Wayne Trail would no longer be public property.
Ninth District state representatives Joe Schmick and Mary Dye inserted a provision in the state’s capital budget to close the section of the trail from Beverly on the Columbia River to Malden — with 50 feet of buffer on each side — returning it to landowners with a permanent easement to the state.
The provision was nullified, however, because of a mix-up in geographic points in the provision document. Instead of reading, “from the Columbia River to Malden,” it read, “from the Columbia River to the Columbia River.”
The wording mistake bumped the item from the budget bill, and Schmick and Dye have now advanced a proposal for the next legislative session. The matter is now up for discussion among constituents, landowners, trail users and others.
“We will talk this out,” said Schmick. “We will see if we can come up with something to benefit all sides of this. This is going to turn out well for the future of the trail, because we will sit down and talk to all involved.”
This process was set to engage Wednesday in Tekoa for a meeting on the proposed closure of the trail section.
The meeting originated from a request by Ted Blaszak, city council member and president of Tekoa Trail Association, one of the voices to rise in protest when the plan came to light earlier in September.
Tekoa city council Sept. 15 passed a resolution to object to the proposal.
Wednesday’s meeting was set for 10 a.m. at Tekoa’s city hall.
“I hope we’ll have at least a plan of action coming out of it,” Schmick told the Gazette Monday.
In explaining the reasoning behind the proposal, Schmick has noted complaints from landowners along the trail regarding trespassing, dumping of appliances as well as liability concerns about several trestles and the lack of improvement of the trail section since its founding in 1984.
Is there a particular reason a meeting similar to Wednesday’s was not held before the provision-to-close was put forth?
“I think it has worked out well,” answered Schmick. “In the fact that now we’ll be able to have that.”
The matter of vacating the trail segment arrives at a time when townspeople in Tekoa have organized to promote the trail and seek funding to open the closed high train trestle that has been iconic for the town.
The trestle effort was kickstarted last December when a group of Tekoans hung Christmas lights off of the trestle, which closed in 1976.
“It surprised and disappointed me,” said Tekoa mayor John Jaeger, of the state representatives’ proposal. “That Schmick didn’t allow some input prior to that, from either the communities or individuals. If he would’ve, he wouldn’t have heard much support. I guess it’s, ‘If you don’t want to hear no, don’t ask.’”
Schmick has cited another railroad bed-turned trail as an example of how the section of John Wayne trail in question could be managed in the future.
The Bill Chipman Palouse Trail, connecting Pullman and Moscow, has its maintenance and upkeep paid for by five entities — WSU, University of Idaho, the city of Pullman, city of Moscow and Whitman County, which each contribute $7,500 per year and make up a Palouse Trail Committee, which oversees it.
A Tekoa town meeting Sept. 21 to discuss the situation brought an estimated 30 people.
Richard Lathim, Dye’s opponent in the November general election, was one of them.
Lathim has previously criticized what he termed the “lack of open government” in the process taken by his opponent and Rep. Schmick.
“The cat’s out of the bag now,” Blaszak said. “It would require statewide action to do this now, they couldn’t slip it in unnoticed, and it’s way too immensely unpopular.”
The John Wayne Trail’s topography and use varies through miles of forests and mountains, to the dry flatlands of the section which may close.
This summer, two Tekoa residents rode bikes from the trail’s start near North Bend to Tekoa. They arrived in time for Slippery Gulch Saturday. The cross-state ride was done as a scouting effort for a proposed “challenge ride” on the trail next year. The ride was suggested as a means of raising funds to deck the Tekoa trestle and open it up as a segment of the trail.
At 253 miles long, the John Wayne Trail is the longest rail-to-trail conversion in the United States.
The non-motorized path was once a key railroad connection linking the industrial midwest to Seattle. Closed in 1980, the right-of-way was sold to the state by the Milwaukee bankruptcy trustee.
The trail ends at the Idaho state line northeast of Tekoa.
Since the founding of the trail, the cross-state route has been used by trail riders who continue on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes which follows the former Union Pacific route as far north as Mullan, Idaho.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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