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25 FEB 2004: Oppose Kansas trail bill; could fragment trails across the state

Submitted by Brent Hugh on Wed, 02/25/2004 - 3:28am
The following is from Cort Anderson of MTBAccess. Please note that a note or call from out-of-state cyclists can also influence Kansas senators.
Please contact your state representative and ask them to oppose House Bill 2583, you can find out who they are at http://www.kslegislature.org/redistricting.html. We need at least 63 no votes to kill this bill.

Here are the points to make with your representative, please rephrase these in your own words.

- Requires county commissions or an advisory board appointed by the commission to inspect the trail(s) in their counties annually to make sure that they are in compliance with the law, this will put an extra burden on counties.

- Will the people inspecting the trails have the background and knowledge to do a proper assessment.

- Puts the control of the trails in the counties hands which means trails could easily become fragmented if a single county decides against the trail. It also means that trail managers will have to work with each county separately and develop and maintain trails to each counties' standards.

- According to some attorneys it is unclear if this bill affects just rails to trails or all recreational trails in the state.

- It would be far better to drop this bill this year and ask KDWP to convene a meeting of stakeholders, to include trail sponsors, trail users, county commissioners, and adjacent landowners, to propose new legislation for the next session that would address the state’s critical need for more recreational trails as well as provide uniform guidance for county governance and adjacent landowner rights and responsibilities.

Also contact your state senators and let them know that although this bill is in the House that you oppose it and ask them to oppose it if it gets to the Senate.

Please forward this to all the trail users in the state that you know.

Thanks,

Cort Anderson

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Cort Anderson
Identis, llc
www.identis.com
canderson@identis.com
620-488-2960
620-488-3196 fax

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