Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
A conclusion is coming on the John Wayne Trail.
A six-month planning process which began in December will end in Clarkston July 20-21 with a recommendation by the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission to the governor’s office.
The process – focused on the eastern section of the trail – has led to some conclusions already.
“Everyone expects us to do a better job than what we were doing,” said Steve Milner, commission chair, who indicated the proposal will include a trailhead at Tekoa which will have parking, some kind of toilets and shade.
Larger matters to decide for what to send to the governor – a capital and operating budgets resolution for the 2017-19 biennium – include how to maintain the almost cross-state trail so it is not a burden for adjacent landowners, how and where to improve it and other concerns.
“I feel very confident we’ve received feedback from all interested parties,” Milner said. “What it feels like is the vast majority wanted to see the trail finished. But none of them liked the way the DNR (Department of Natural Resources)/State Parks had managed it.”
For the Clarkston meeting at Quality Inn and Suites, Milner and his six volunteer colleagues on the commission will deliberate publicly before voting.
It will follow public input scheduled for 1 p.m.
“It’s entirely observable,” said Randy Kline, parks planner.
Milner indicated to the Gazette that the recommendation will include a series of repairs and redecking of tunnels at Rock Lake among others on a list of trestles and tunnels on the trail’s eastern section.
State Parks’ staff has recommended an estimated $800,000 be spent in design and permitting work for improvements to trailheads, trestles and rock fall scaling and removal.
The total budget for the proposal is set at $96 million, a sum which the commission was advised to target by State Parks Director of Planning Peter Herzog.
“We have an overall idea of our capacity to deliver in a biennium,” Milner said. “We’re reluctant to ask for money we cannot use in a biennium.”
Milner is in his fifth year of a six-year appointment. A native of Wisconsin and retired chemical process engineer, he holds a master’s degree in ecology from University of Illinois. He and his wife came to Washington in 2008 and bought a house near Lake Chelan State Park.
What the commission decides to send to the governor can be used or referred to in proposed legislation.
“The commission can set their priorities, but they can be changed, like anything else in the state legislature,” said Kline.
Milner noted that the John Wayne Trail process has competing, but agreeable interests.
“Those in the local area take a lot of ownership and we have to weigh that with the other six million residents of the state,” he said. “There are issues that everyone supports as well as issues a number of people don’t like.”
Milner or one of his colleagues were at all of the planning and public feedback sessions on the trail, which were held this winter and spring in Lind, Ritzville, Ellensburg and Cheney.
“The commission wants to restore some of the lost prosperity of the railroads for these towns along the way,” he said.
The State Parks’ formal planning process began after a failed budget proviso last September in the legislature almost closed a 135-mile section of the non-motorized trail from the Columbia River at Beverly to Malden.
State Parks began trail spraying in March and hired a seasonal trail technician for weed control, funded by a new $100,000 budget proviso from the legislature.
The John Wayne Pioneer Trail is part of the Iron Horse State Park Trail, which stretches 285 miles from North Bend to the Idaho border, comprising most of the former Milwaukee Road Railroad corridor.
The trail’s eastern section begins on the east side of the Columbia River and extends 175 miles to the Idaho border.
A planning process for the 110-mile western section of the Iron Horse Trail – from Beverly Bridge at the Columbia River to Cedar Falls (near North Bend) – was finished in 2000. Three years ago, State Parks completed planning for the 35-mile section of railroad corridor between Malden and the Idaho state line.
Washington State Parks has completed more than 100 land-use plans for parks around the state.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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