Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Tekoa meeting
Ninth District representatives Mary Dye, center, and Joe Schmick, right, listen as Tekoa Trails Association member Monte Morgan observes at Tekoa city hall Sept. 30. For more pictures, see A12 in the weekly pages.
The proposal to close part of the John Wayne Trail is now on hold while an advisory group assembles to take on the matter.
The status of the proposal followed a two-hour meeting Sept. 30 in Tekoa.
After comments and questions from landowners, trail enthusiasts, a State Parks representative and state representatives Joe Schmick and Mary Dye, the meeting adjourned with a call by Rep. Schmick for volunteers to serve on the committee.
Tekoa Trails Association President Ted Blaszak, who ran the meeting, hesitated and asked that time be taken to make sure someone in the study group was from the legislature.
Schmick and Blaszak then agreed to talk over the next two weeks and decide the committee.
The proposed closure of a 135-mile section of the trail had been put forth as a provision to a capital budget which Schmick helped write. It originated in the state senate.
Trail proponents three weeks earlier learned that the attempt to close a 135-mile segment of the trail, between the Columbia River and Malden, had snagged because a wording mix-up in the proposal.
This week Schmick, who faced a series of questions from Blazak, provided additional comment.
“It was a compromise,” he said. “Nobody really liked it so it must've been pretty good, I'd say. The landowners wanted the land returned to them. They didn't get it. The trail riders wanted it to remain open. They didn't get that.”
The budget bill provision was nullified due to a misstatement on the provision document. When that came to light, protest rose – especially in Tekoa, which organized to promote the John Wayne Trail in the past year in an effort to reopen the signature trestle that looms over town.
The main complaint has been about a lack of public input before the plan to close was put forward.
“I think it's a little disingenuous to say that the public hasn't had any input,” Schmick said Monday. “This was not done in the dark of night. It was in the capital budget as proposed by the Senate. It was a bill on the bar, which is open for public scrutiny. It's online, as with any other bill...”
Schmick maintains that the intent of the plan was for landowners to take control of noxious weeds, fences and other upkeep on the trail until the state comes through with funding to take proper care of it–at which point the trail would have reopened.
It didn't go through, however, thus leading to the meeting at Tekoa city hall Sept. 30. A crowd of about 75 people sat on fold-out chairs brought down from the former Jaycees Club.
Whitman County Commissioner Art Swannack, after listening to two hours of comments and questions, suggested Monday that the two main interests were intertwined.
“If you don't solve the landowners' issues, that trail's not going to be successful,” he said.
The meeting
It began with Blaszak reading questions – prepared by the Tekoa Trail Association – to Dye and Schmick.
“Will you introduce a bill in the next legislative session to close the previously mentioned section of the John Wayne Trail?”
“I'm looking forward to a robust discussion,” Schmick said. “There are definitely two sides to this issue.”
He continued and Blaszak interrupted.
“I'm getting to the answer for your question: No, no, not at this time,” Schmick said.
To the same question, Dye explained that she was presented with the trail matter after being appointed to the former Rep. Susan Fagan's seat in May.
“Rumors of my vast knowledge of this issue are largely exaggerated,” she said.
To another question, she encouraged fundraising and “buy-in” from volunteers.
“You know that people are doing that on the west side,” Dye said.
To a question from Blaszak on why there wasn't a public hearing on the matter before the provision was introduced, Schmick in his response pointed to the future.
“We're here now, we're gonna work ahead,” he said as the people in attendance sat, stood and listened, including Tekoa Mayor John Jaeger and city council members around a U-shaped table.
“I wasn't there when this was developed,” Dye said. “It wasn't an issue I was involved in.”
“Again, I want to put together a group that's gonna take a look at this,” Schmick said, answering another question from Blaszak.
He mentioned an instance this summer when he heard of someone he knew making the complete ride on the trail; Pete Martin of Tekoa.
“Until that time, frankly, I didn't know anyone personally who had been all the way across the state. That's eight years,” he said, referring to his time in the legislature.
“I just came in as a citizen,” Dye explained, citing her residence near Pomeroy. She noted how the area saw the recent closure of Lyons Ferry and Central Ferry Park. “From my perspective, we didn't have any say and they closed our park.”
She referred to what she's learned so far in the legislature.
“Now I understand how bad 2008 was to our state ... now I understand more completely how things happen,” Dye said.
Blaszak read a question about potential money for the trail.
“The only money I have direct control over to make suggestions is the capital budget,” Schmick said.
He was asked if he knows of other parks that have closed because of the problems he's cited with the trail — weed control, trash dumped such as appliances, trespassing onto private land and/or liability of old trestles and more.
“I think from this time forward we will have a committee to look at these questions,” Schmick said, standing again behind the microphone at a podium. “Trails being closed for these issues, I don't know, and I will find out.”
Dye stood next to answer the same question from Blaszak.
“I think you have as much information to present to us as we do to you at this point,” Dye said.
“Without the John Wayne Trail, how will people visit the Scablands?” read Blaszak next.
“I'm looking forward to the work group we're gonna have,” said Schmick.
“I don't know enough about that. I've driven there,” Dye commented.
Then Blaszak dimmed the lights.
Heads turned to a light on the wall and Fred Wagoner of Tekoa began a slide show of another Tekoa resident's ride this summer on the trail. Flashing images of the section of trail in question, he narrated.
“This is one of the few green areas we came across, right out of (the town of) Beverly,” he said. “Grass clippings were the only trash seen.”
Pete Martin accompanied Wagner and Tristan Smith of Tekoa on the cross-state ride, billed as a scouting trip for a proposed challenge ride next year under the sponsorship of the Tekoa trail group.
After the slide presentation, the lights came up and Blaszak called for comment from any other elected officials before opening the floor to the public.
Mayor Jaeger expressed his disappointment in the two Ninth District representatives for not seeking public input beforehand.
“Now it's a reaction vs. being proactive,” Jaeger said.
Tekoa Clerk-Treasurer Kynda Browning then asked “if it's not costing the state any money, why not just keep it open?”
“I do believe the adjacent property owners have legitimate concerns,” Schmick answered. “I have to represent all.”
Tekoa Trails Association member Monte Morgan's turn came next.
Sitting across from Schmick and Dye at one wing of the front table, he leaned toward the representatives.
Chastising them for no public input, he continued.
“You're all about going forward from this point on. The future is built on what happens in the past,” he said, telling the two of them that they represent more than just the trail users and property owners.
In his response, Schmick said he thought the group he intended to assemble to take on this issue was “here today.” He also said he had pictures of trash on the trail.
Blaszak then began calling on members of the public.
Gaylord Perkins, a John Wayne Trail rider from Granger, Wash., stood up in the front row.
“I have seen this trail from a wagon, a cart. This park represents a generational opportunity,” he said. “If it looks like a dump, it will be a dump. This cross-state trail is a jewel for the state of Washington. To let it go would be a dirty, dirty shame.”
Blaszak called for any other public officials' comment.
State representative Tom Dent of the 13th District then walked to the podium and microphone.
“You guys are hot on your side, but there's people hot on the other side,” he said, cowboy hat on.
He mentioned funding.
“You put in budget requests. I put in six this year and got one. There's only so much pie.”
He encouraged the citizens in matters of tone.
“Build a relationship with these people,” he said of Schmick and Dye. “This closure isn't going anywhere, it's dead. But this is a great opportunity, you got a couple people here that want to work with you. I love America, and this is America right here.”
Next, former Malden mayor Ted Maxwell talked.
“This is about a trail closing? When did it open?” he said. “It's not just grass clippings. Each year the Trail Riders, it's a smaller group. There's not enough rangers to police that trail. There's always groups, they're always seeking funds. Every town in Washington can be Leavenworth, if you just follow the formula. If it's really that important, why don't we spend our own money?”
He finished to applause.
Fred Wagoner, the man who showed the slides, waved for a follow-up, asking if the dump along the trail Maxwell referred to was a private dump.
Maxwell said it was.
A lady with white hair spoke next.
She talked about people she knows who use the trail, and reported what she'd observed.
“I have never seen a hiker or bike rider carrying even a small appliance.”
Laughter erupted.
“I don't think dumping is the trail users, it was probably brought by car,” she concluded.
Brandon Spencer, a landowner from east Adams County came to the podium next.
Representing 75 landowners, he started.
“The John Wayne Trail cuts my ranch in half for six miles,” he said.
He talked about how you can't get from one side of the state to the other on the trail without trespassing.
He talked about weeds.
“The state did zero weed control in 2014,” he said. “And this year, very limited.”
“If I don't control this, it's going to spread onto my property. This is for me to control the weeds on the state park land,” he said.
Spencer, 29, continued, saying he and his late father had had some bad experiences with trail riders, such as camping and grazing horses in an area they weren't supposed to.
“But we'll let those be bygones,” he continued. “They could be spreading weeds across Washington much faster than the state could ever control.”
He brought up a matter of liability, mentioning the effort to reopen the Tekoa trestle, which was closed in 1978 after the Milwaukee railroad's bankruptcy.
“Who is responsible when the first drunken WSU student falls off and dies?” said Spencer. “Who's liability is it?”
He talked about fencing.
“You fence off your yard to keep your elephants out,” he said. “This was the railroad's responsibility, to keep their stock off their railroad. When that railroad went in in 1917, it was not designed for people lollygagging, with a first-hand view inside of your property.”
A man from Washington State Parks came to the podium next, Steve Brand, Partnership and Planning Program Manager.
“Personally, I don't think it'll be a Cougar that falls off the bridge, it'll be an Eagle,” he said.
Touting the value of recreation in Washington, he cited a $22 billion annual economic impact statewide, comparing it to industries such as aerospace and computers.
“It's often overlooked,” he said.
He noted Vernonia, Ore., saying it had somewhat of a comeback after a rail-to-trail conversion.
“This is a real opportunity,” he said. “I like to think that we're all planners ... We've had 35 years of underinvestment in the trail. Being a neighbor to a park boosts your land values.”
Blaszak then spoke again, looking to wrap the meeting.
“It's been an hour and a half, I gotta use the bathroom,” he said.
Seeing more hands raised, he acquiesced.
Jay Allert stepped to the podium.
A fourth-generation cattle rancher between Malden and Rosalia, he gave his view.
“We have the reality of this,” he said. “All of the time. This is a corridor for trespass. It's not a functioning state park. What this provision was was a solution, frankly. It doesn't satisfy us as landowners and it doesn't satisfy the trail users. Does it impact the value of my property? Yes, it's a huge liability.”
Allert, the owner of his grandfather's junkyard, said that people wander off the trail to look at and climb on the old cars and farm equipment.
The crowd showed four or five more people who wanted to speak.
“Anybody getting hungry?” said Blaszak.
Louise Belsby, a fourth-generation landowner, spoke next.
“One of the reasons you don't find trash there is we're the ones to pick it up,” she said.
She relayed her experiences with taking care of weeds along the trail.
“The last straw was when State Parks wanted to charge a fee to use motorized vehicles to spray weeds ... The biggest problem is the lack of funds to maintain properly.”
She thanked Rep. Schmick for an arrangement to allow use of motorized vehicles by property owners to get from one landlocked section to another on the trail. In her case, Belsby used this to spray weeds inside the trail's right of way/buffer zone.
After many years of loose organization among landowners along the trail, this issue last year brought a new unity.
“Let's let common sense prevail somehow,” Belsby urged. “We need some kind of solution to give us some relief.”
A non-adjacent landowner in Spokane, Abijah Perkins, stood next.
“It's reality, you own land, there is gonna be some of these issues, but you don't take away the people's park,” he said.
He turned to the state representatives to his left.
“You knew you were coming here but you have no information,” he said to Schmick, specifically.
“Your level of ignorance on this is deeply insulting to us who care so much about it.”
Boos rose from the crowd.
“Hey, hey! No boos!” called Blaszak, reaching for a gavel.
“It's alright, it's politics,” Schmick said from his seat.
Jack Silzel, a landowner and former legislative aide to Congressman George Nethercutt, spoke next.
“I've spent 35 years and thousands of dollars taking care of the state's weeds,” he said.
A rails-to-trails advocate then spoke.
“This is a gem here,” the man said. “A loop with the (Trail of the Coeur D'Alenes), beginning eight miles from Tekoa in Plummer would be a phenomenal system. Folks, this is a tremendous opportunity that you shouldn't let pass.”
Blaszak cut the comments there and Schmick had the conclusion, calling for volunteers for the advisory group, adding that it could be mediated by the parks department.
Mayor Jaeger said that this is a dead issue for the current legislative session so there is time.
Blaszak allowed Spencer more comment.
“You sound like a fellow that wants something right now,” he said to Blaszak, suggesting that a process under the umbrella of State Parks could take years.
“It's far bigger than this room,” Blaszak said, in a continued exchange with Schmick about getting someone in the legislature on the committee.
They agreed to discuss it further and decide on the committee in two weeks.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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