Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
A group of Tekoa and Plummer, Idaho, area farmers have signed an expression of interest to work out a deal to turn a six-mile stretch of former railroad bed into a link between the John Wayne Pioneer Trail and the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes.
The initial agreement calls for Ted Blaszak, president of the Tekoa Trestle and Trail Association, to seek funding of an estimated $30,000 from the Doppelt Foundation in Chicago – or other sources – to help alleviate access issues, liability insurance and provide signs.
The paper signed April 17 states that the seven farmers have “expressed an interest to entertain a formal offer in the near future made by a non-profit or private equity to gain access to the trail bed.”
The landowners along the stretch of Milwaukee Road former rail bed farm around the line that continues from a 285-mile route owned by the state through Washington – and overseen by Washington State Parks as the John Wayne Pioneer Trail.
Participants met at the Feeding Station in Tekoa April 21 for a breakfast forum and signed the agreement.
“It’s fine if someone wants to go through there if they are not gonna mess with anything,” said Don Hay, a fourth-generation farmer whose land is crossed by the rail bed about two miles from the stateline.
Hay indicated that a key to any deal would be that it would not be a sale, but in the form of an easement, which would allow the six miles, or part of them, to be closed at certain times as necessary.
“We’d have to have that as an option,” Hay said.
One potential crux would be harvest time in July and August in which some of the six landowners drive grain trucks on the rail bed.
The potential agreements’ original momentum was largely orchestrated by longtime Tekoa resident Cheryl Morgan.
“I can’t deal with the politics of it, I’m not a politician, but I can deal with the farmers,” she said. “Because I love farmers. I was born a farmer’s daughter.”
Morgan, who is the wife of Monte Morgan, vice president of the TTTA, began talking to the landowners over time, many of which she has known since childhood.
One of the key concerns she heard was about liability.
“We’re rural people out here, if someone falls, they’re probably not gonna sue me,” said Hay. “But you don’t know what somebody from Seattle is gonna think.”
“The farmers had some very legitimate concerns,” Morgan said.
At the Washington-Idaho border, the state-owned John Wayne Trail becomes private land, running for the six miles to Plummer, passing under Highway 95. The rail bed ends in Plummer, at which a one-mile ride on a town street takes a rider to the south end of the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, which extends into Idaho for 69 miles to Mullan. Riders there have the option to connect with the top of the Trail of the Hiawatha East Portal.
With the proposed six-mile, partially wooded link, the entire three-state stretch could become the longest rails-to-trails conversion in America.
“She may have made history,” Blaszak said of Morgan.
Dan Schafer, a trail advocate from Spokane, was also at the April 21 meeting. On behalf of the TTTA, he filed an application earlier this year to the Doppelt Family Foundation – a private entity that supports rails-to-trails – for a $25,000 grant to spur this process. Schafer took a member of the foundation through the area last year.
The organization has already donated $5,500 to the TTTA.
“It would probably end up an easement arrangement with financial compensation. That gets complicated then in who is responsible for maintenance and liability,” Shafer said
An easement would work similarly to how utility companies are granted access to service power lines across private land.
The six miles include a tunnel on Clarence Haeg’s land which will need repairs to make it safe. The non-motorized trail would be open to hikers, bicyclists and horseback riders.
Blaszak is now drawing up a formal document to present to the farmers, on behalf of the TTTA.
“They need to come out with a firm offer – and we’ll decide if we’re for it or against it,” said Hay.
“The major goal of the TTTA is to make sure that it’s recognized to all users that it is a trail for farmers’ first,” Blaszak said. “We are guests.”
He is now looking into a group insurance option through the TTTA which can be accessed by landowners.
Grant money now sought would be to address the three keys of the potential deal: the cost to make the trail useable (signs, legal expenses, insurance); financial reimbursement for access, and repair of trail bed and tunnel.
“We will be able to raise the money without much trouble,” Blaszak said.
An attorney approved by both sides is now working on the document to present to the landowners.
Blaszak expects to have this ready in the next two weeks.
From there, it could be approved, adjusted or denied.
“Rural landowners see less respect all the time.” said Hay. “That’s what nobody wants. You don’t want to open a can of worms that you’ll be wanting to get out of.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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