HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015 12-09 Decision not to plow Gateway Trail is drawing fire STAR TRIBUNE 12/9/2015 Decision not to plow the Gateway Trail is drawing fir�
EAST METRO
Decision not to plow the Gateway Trail
is drawing fire
Trail attracts hundreds of thousands of users a year.
By Kevin Giles(http://www.startribune.com/kevin-giles/10644901/)Star Tribune
DECEMBER 8,2035—9:lOPM
A state agency is drawing fire for its decision to permanently suspend snowplowing on
Minnesota's busiest state trail.
Twelve miles of the Gateway State Trail will go unplowed as part of a statewide
Department of Natural Resources plan to shift resources to"high-use seasons,"said
Erika Rivers,the manager of the agency's parks and trail unit.The Gateway,which
stretches from St.Paul to northern Washington County,attracts hundreds of thousands
of users a year—including in winter.
Melinda Coleman,Maplewood's city administrator,said she finds it appalling that
taz�payers and city leaders didn't have a voice in the decision,and said that leaving the
trail unplowed is unacceptable.
"This is a regional trail,used by hundreds of people in an urban setting,"Coleman said.
"I can't imagine maldng that Idnd of decision,and to not inform us,is really alarming to
me.That's really not good governance."
A related DNR decision to ban high school sld teams from training at William O'Brien
State Park,in Washington County,was under review Tuesday after coaches questioned
why the agency had ended a 40-year arrangement.
Phil Leversedge,the deputy director of the parks and trails unit,said teams were notified
they no longer could ski in the state park on Fridays,Saturdays and Sundays to better
accommodate other park users who wanted to sld.As many as 130 team slders use the
trails on weekends"and put a lot of pressure on the system,"he said.
"We didn't have the resources to recondition the trails after their use on Saturday
mornings,"Leversedge said.`°This isn't a new problem.IYs a problem we recognized we
needed to address,"he said,as part of the DNR's new statewide plan that now excludes
Gateway plowing.
DNR`missed mark'
Leversedge said the DNR"missed the mark in connecting with the sld group"and wanted
to reach a resolution in a late Tuesday meeting.
"I'm trying to find the logic in this,°said Kris Hansen,one of three head coaches for the
Stillwater Area High School sld team."Whether 10 people use the ski trail or 500 people
use the sld trail,the snow doesn't get used up."
The DNR hasn't been maintaining the trails for at least a couple of years and high school
slders do the work to keep them in good shape,she said.The agency should be
encouraang youth to use parks and trails,not excluding them,and targeting high school
ski teams is discriminatory,she said.
"I don't think iYs fair to single out a group of people and say,`You can't use this
resource."'
For years,the bustling Gateway trail has attracted cyclists,n.inners,hikers,slders and
even commuters.The trail took on even more strategic importance last year when the
DNR opened the connecting Brown's Creek State Trail.Brown's Creek,the state's newest
trail,follows the 5.9-mile corridor once used by the Minnesota Zephyr dinner train from
Stillwater to the city of Grant,where it linlcs to the Gateway trail.
Under the new DNR plan,Brown's Creek won't be plowed either—unless cities elect to
pay for the work.
The city of Stillwater"currently is exploring options"for winter maintenance on the
portion of the trail thaYs within city limits,said Tom McCarty,the city administrator.
http://www.startribune.com/decision-not-to-plow-th�gateway-trai I-is-drawing-fire/361155451/
12/9/2015 Decision not to plow the Gateway Trail is drawing fire
Rivers said the DNR will save about$10,000 a winter by not plowing the first 12 miles of
the Gateway trail leading from St.Paul.The fina16 miles—from North St.Paul to
where the trail ends at Pine Point Regional Park north of Stillwater—won't be groomed
for skiing as it has been in the past,she said.
"IYs the lowest use tune of the year on the Gateway and Brown's Creek state trails so
we're looking for other ways to provide those services rather than the state providing
them,"Rivers said.
`Strategic'use of funds
The decision to suspend plowing wasn't entirely financial,she said,but took into
account the protcimity of other outdoor recreation areas,managed by cities and
counties,that provide similar services.
"We're being more strategic in how and where we invest funds,"she said,because of
demands of maintaining 75 parks and recreation areas and 25 state trails in Minnesota.
Coleman said Maplewood city leaders question why the DNR wouldn't plow a taxpayer-
funded trail and why cities were just finding out about a months-old decision.Coleman
said the DNR had sent a letter advising that the city leave the trail unplowed to avoid
legal liability.She met Tuesday with a DNR representative to convey her unhappiness.
"I told her,`I've got to be honest,this doesn't sound very Minnesotan.'We have a lot of
people relying on the Gateway trail,"Coleman said.
Mark McCabe,who oversees park operations in Ramsey County,said,"We've asked the
DNR to reconsider."Not plowing a"fairly major regional trail"could limit public use,
he said.
Trail users dismayed
John Oldendorf,of the Gateway-Brown's Creek Trail Association,said the DNR decision
left trail users feeling dismayed.
"An awful lot of people look forward to walldng on the plowed portion of the trail,"he
said.
In Grant,which has the longest stretch of trail in Washington County,Mayor Tom Carr
said he didn't lmow the DNR wouldn't be plowing this winter.
"Communication is lacldng,"he said."We're not invited to those meetings where they
make these decisions."
Carr said the DNR should consider that people trying to wallc on unplowed trails will
leave packed,icy surfaces that will remain into spring—when even more people come
to walk the trail.
"If we have a lot of calls because people are falling thaYs seriously going to affect our
city and our costs,"he said.
Rivers,at the DNR,said her agency is trying hard to develop a uniform plan far all of
Minnesota's parks and trails and to smooth out"uneven"funding experienced in the
past.
"We are taldng stock of where we're at right now and finding a new path forward,
sustainable into the future,"she said.
kgiles@startribune.com 651-925-5037 StribGiles
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