By Tom Steward | Watchdog Minnesota Bureau
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — For many bikers and hikers, it was too good to be true. A makeshift natural surface public trail along a 12-mile stretch of the Minnesota River in suburban Bloomington, largely self-managed and maintained for years with little cost to taxpayers or government intervention.
“The reality is the mountain bikers are the ones who’ve been providing access for so many years at no charge to the taxpayer,” said Dennis Porter, a Bloomington resident and Minnesota Off Road Cyclists member. “… Bloomington has been allowing us to do this, because they know we’ve been providing a resource for many people, and it’s saved them a boatload of money.”
Now extreme bikers find themselves fighting more than tricky terrain. They oppose a state plan to add a 10-foot-wide blacktop path parallel to the current trail at a cost of $100,000 to $375,000 per mile. Cyclists claim a natural trail makes the most sense aesthetically and fiscally, given likely maintenance costs to a paved path inflicted by flooding.
“As an organization, Minnesota Off Road Cyclists has built many natural trails throughout the state of Minnesota, mostly through counties, not state trails, and they are some of the most popular trails in the state,” said Porter. “They don’t cost any money, most of them are done through volunteers, and their popularity is outstanding.”
But for local and state officials, it was too good to pass up — $2.1 million in state bonding to increase access by blacktopping the missing 12-mile link in a 72-mile-long state sidewalk from Fort Snelling State Park to Le Sueur. The more access, the better in publicly funded recreational trails.
“If this can only be used by people who can physically do it, and I’m one of them, I’m a user, then it is a waste of money to have a trail system that only some people can participate in,” said Rep. Ann Lenczewski, DFL-Bloomington, author of the 2014 funding legislation.
The ad hoc trail offers a sense of solitude in some spots surprisingly close to the Mall of America and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
“These trails are popular for mountain bikers, hikers and nature lovers. Certain segments are designated for pedestrians only,” states a city guide about the informal public pathway that follows the river on city property located in the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
Subject to flooding and the forces of nature, people using the trail necessarily relied on themselves and others to clear the way of downed trees and debris. The DIY way.
WHERE’S THE TRAIL? Flooding damages the ad hoc trail maintained largely by volunteers, but the state will install a 10 foot wide blacktop pathway to increase access at a cost of $100,000 to $375,000 per mile.
“Yes, they have been doing trail maintenance and I have thanked Dennis (Porter) in public settings repeatedly for that. But that’s because this hasn’t been funded,” said Lenczewski, who regularly walks the trail. “…You have to have someone get in there and move a tree, because it isn’t funded and isn’t staffed.”
Despite impressive volunteer efforts and low costs, the Minnesota Valley State Trail’s prime urban location all but ensured politicians’ and planners’ hands-off policy would only last so long.
“The mountain bikers, I understand it, they’ve had a wonderful experience down there for years. They’ve been the primary user, they’ve been the primary maintainer of the trail,” said Randy Quale, Blooming parks and recreation director. “The MORC (mountain bikers) group has just been absolutely fabulous to work with. So it’s a difficult situation.”
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will begin construction in fall 2016 of a “destination trail” positioned to outdraw every trail in the state.
“Our state trails are really designed for the general public. People pushing strollers, people pulling their children in the cart behind them, people that maybe have walkers, and everybody in between really,” said Cynthia Wheeler, DNR project manager. “So, in terms of the natural surface single-track trail, that doesn’t meet our state trail standards.”
Lenczewski acknowledges increasing maintenance costs for hundreds of miles of state recreational trails already on the map continues to percolate as an issue at the State Capitol.
“I do think people are talking about maybe we’re overbuilding, and who’s going to maintain this. I get that, but that’s not this trail,” said Lenczewski.
Plans call for the Minnesota River Valley Trail to tie into a $15 million renovation of the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge just getting under way.
“The more people that we can get down there to use the river valley and become acquainted with the Minnesota River, the more support there’s going to be for conservation efforts throughout the watershed,” said Ed Crozier, former manager of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge and paved trail advocate. “So we have a larger objective in mind, besides just greater access for people in wheelchairs and narrow wheel bikes and just walking.”