ALERT: Contact the Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee to ask for support for Rock Island Trail Funding by Tues, May 3rd

UPDATE 5/3: The Senate Appropriations Committee did indeed zero out all of Gov Parson's propose Rock Island Trail funding, in a vote Monday afternoon.

Please contact your Missouri Senator now - all Missouri Senators - and ask them to support the Rock Island Trail funding when HB 3020 comes to the Senate floor.

Look up your own Missouri Senator here. Call and/or send a message using the contact form on your Senator's web page.

UPDATE 4/28:

The Senate Appropriations Committee is still considering HB 3020, the bill that includes the bulk of the Rock Island Trail State Park funding proposed by Governor Parson.  They have repeatedly scheduled, then postpone hearings.  As of now, the earliest a hearing could take place is Monday May 2nd or Tuesday May 3rd.

These continual delays are GOOD NEWS for Rock Island Trail funding, as they mean that the debate and discussion about this and other funding priorities continues. The initial position of Committee leadership was to ZERO the funding, so we definitely need more discussion and debate in order to move them off of that position!

In the meanwhile,

• Please continue to contact your Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee members as outlined below. 
• Contact them again with a follow-up and more encouragement if you have contacted them before.
• In this case we're trying to both blunt opposition and fire up our supporters.  So even if you know your Senator is a supporter, a follow up message asking them to really be a champion on this issue will help a lot.

Opponents of the Rock Island Trail are working hard and making many contacts - to have a chance to move the dial, we must do the same, or more.

Capitol Day/Legislators Ride April 25th

FYI MoBikeFed's annual Ride with Legislators and Capitol Day April 25th was a big success. Thanks goes to ALL who attended.

Meetings and discussions that day and following have played a big role in changing the discussion about the Rock Island Trail State Park for the better.

UPDATE 4/21:  

Would you like to do something today that will help make Missouri's new 144-mile Rock Island Trail a reality?

The Rock Island Trail will combine with the Katy Trail and other interconnected trails to create a 500+ mile cross-state trail system across Missouri

A Missouri Senate Committee meeting is being held Wednesday, April 20th Tuesday, May 3rd,* and we believe this Committee vote is the biggest hurdle to Gov Parson's proposed $69 million in funding to make the next 144 miles of the Rock Island Trail a reality.

Can you take 5 minutes to contact the Missouri Senator on the Committee who is from  your area, to ask for support of the proposed Rock Island Trail funding?

* The Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on HB 3020 was initially scheduled for Wednesday, April 20th.  It is been rescheduled and postponed several times since then, as Senators discuss and refine their priorities.  As of April 28th, the earliest the hearing can be held is Tuesday, May 3rd. Check the Senate Committee Hearing Schedule for updates - it sometimes changes hour by hour as the annual legislative session draws to a close.

How you can help - Write the Missouri Senator on the Appropriations Committee who represents your part of the state

• Call or email your own member of the Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee (click for contact list)

• CC: director@mobikefed.org (it helps us have an idea of the response)
   

• Write a short message, in your own words, making these points:

  • Please fully fund the Rock Island Trail at the $69 million recommended by Gov. Parson.
    
    

    

    The portion of the trail requested for ARPA funding is the most difficult but also the most scenic section of the Rock Island, with two major bridges and three major tunnels. With this most difficult piece of the trail done, the complete connection to the Katy will be rapidly complete. Further regional, statewide, and national trail connections are in the works as well.

  • This is a statewide project that will benefit communities all across the state from the largest to the smallest, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity truly create a legacy that will benefit the entire state.

  • Ask you senator to step up and be a champion for the project and Gov Parson's funding.
     

  • Let the Senator know where you live (in-district or at least nearby). And you can include a few sentences or a short story explaining why the trail is important to you.

  • Below are more ideas you can mention if you like.
     
• If you call, you'll most likely talk to your Senator's legislative staff. "I'm XXX from YYY. I'm calling to ask Sen. XXX to support full funding for the Rock Island Trail.  Thank you!"  Calls are very, very effective!
   
• Note: We are not providing a sample message because it is so much more effective when each person writes an individual message.  It doesn't need to be  long -  2 or 3 sentences is plenty. The main idea to communicate is: Support full funding for the Rock Island Trail.

Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee Contact List

Check the areas each Senator represents (listed below). Contact the Senator closest to you.

Note: Some people have had trouble sending email via the addresses shown.  If your email message is returned, try sending via the "Email the Senator Form" linked below, instead.

Senate Appropriations Committee

Also helpful: Budget Committee web page - Statewide map of Missouri Senate Districts/Current Senator

Trash to treasure - the Rock Island Corridor goes through more than 20 Missouri communities, and hasn't been maintained in decades. The corridor will go from a liability for Rock Island communities to a statewide asset.

If you have extra time, also contact your own Missouri Senator with the same message. For now, the Committee is most important.  But once the bill is out of Committee in a week or so, the full Senate will be voting on it. Look up your own Missouri Senator & Representative here. See graphics below that show how to find the contact info.

Background

The $69 million appropriation for the Rock Island Trail proposed by Governor Parson is enough to build the major part - and the most difficult and costly sections - of the 144-mile Rock Island Trail section between Windsor and Washington, MO.  This is the Rock Island Trail section that Missouri State Parks finally accepted into the Missouri State Parks system last December.

When you search using *Legislator Lookup* you will see your Missouri State Senator & Representative listed near the top of the results.

The $69 million is federal funding that the state has received as part of the federal stimulus funding package - federal ARPA funding.  So it is money the state must spend within the next few years or it will be lost. 

This is the opportunity of a lifetime to get the Rock Island Trail/Katy Trail loop system - over 500 miles of interconnected trail all across Missouri - actually built and open. The $69 million is not enough to build the entire 144-mile rail trail.  But it is enough to do the hardest and most expensive portions - including the three major tunnels and two major bridges.  Missouri State Parks believes that the $69 million is enough to complete the easternmost portion of the trail, from Eldon to Beaufort. 

With that most difficult portion complete, the remainder can be completed over time using regular funding sources.

Sample Legislator Letter Format

Date

The Honorable (full name)
Missouri Senate [or House of Representatives]
201 W Capitol Ave
Jefferson City, Missouri 65101

Subject: Please support full funding for the Rock Island Trail in HB 3020

Dear Senator (last name),  OR   Dear Representative (last name),

 

I live in your district in XXXXX.  I am writing today to ask you to support the full $69 million in ARPA funding requested by Governor Parson for the Rock Island Trail in HB 3020.  I hope you will support this funding because YYYYYY.

Sincerely,

ZZZZZZZ

Ideas for your message

Again PLEASE do not include all of these messages - shorter is better!  But you could choose one or two of these points to make in your own words.

• The trail is an outstanding opportunity for the state to provide a cross-state trail experience through the rugged, scenic, and remote northern Ozarks.
   
  

  When you click the search results to see your Senator's home page, you will find the office phone number and an *Email the Senator* link in the upper right
• The requested funding  will complete the most remote and difficult sections of the trail.  Completing the rest will be a partnership with the many small towns and numerous civic organizations along the route.
   
• The Rock Island and Katy Trail system will be a 500-mile seamlessly connected cross-state trail loop when complete.  This will be one of the longest contiguous trail projects in the world.
   
• The longer the trail, the further people will travel to visit, the longer they stay, and the more they spend on their visit.
   
• Because of that, completion of the Rock Island Trail and the cross-state trail loop will have statewide economic benefits.
   
• Communities all along the existing Rock Island and Katy Trails (300 miles now, and dozens of communities) will benefit. 
   
• The Rock Island/Katy Trail Corridor connects some of our smallest rural communities and largest metro areas - including Kansas City, St Louis, Columbia, and Jefferson City. 
• Communities across the state - east to west and north to south - have been working to develop trails and bicycle touring routes to connect their communities with the Rock Island Trail.  
   
• Because of those connections, completing the trail loop system through the heart of Missouri will have economic and quality of life impacts on the entire state.
   
• The project is a major rural economic development initiative for the 19 communities along the 144 miles of new Rock Island Trail.
   
• 40 percent of Missourians live within 50 miles of the combined Rock Island & Katy Trail corridors.
   
• In 2020, the Katy Trail recorded more than 500,000 visitors.  A study 10 years ago when visitation was much lower, showed that the Katy generated nearly $18.5 million a year in economic impact for the state.
   
• Unlike the Katy Trail, the Rock Island Trail will go directly through 19 communities - through or near downtown in all of them. That means a bigger impact on local economies and more opportunity for local residents to use the trail, children to walk to school on the trail, and so on.
   
• Partnerships are already being forged and grants applied for by local communities in order to supplement ARPA funds and the continued fundraising for the Endowment Fund.
   
• The ARPA funding will be seed funding that will bring significantly more funding along with it - private, local, and federal funding.
   
• Development of the Rock Island Trail is a significant infrastructure investment for Missouri that will have far-reaching benefits for generations.
   
• This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to impact such a large part of our great state and my local community.     

Look up your own Missouri State Senator & Representative here.

Thank you!

Thank you!  The work to support the acceptance of the Rock Island Trail byu Missouri State Parks and now funding to complete much of the trail has been and amazing cooperative effort among dozens of allied organizations across Missouri and many thousands of individual Missourians. Please support all of these groups - but above all, do not forget Missouri Rock Island Trail, Inc, the alliance of local supporters and communities along the trail that is dedicated solely to the development and completion of the trail.

When people and organizations from all across Missouri work together to support the projects we all benefit from and enjoy, and to contact our elected officials and state leaders, it really makes a difference!

One of the top goals of MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri is building a world-class bicycle and pedestrian transportation system in Missouri.  The addition of the Rock Island Trail to Missouri's statewide trail system is the biggest single advance we have seen in Missouri in over 20 years.

Your membership and generous financial contributions help turn our Vision into reality--building the statewide public support for bicycling, walking, and trails that make major advances like the Rock Island Trail possible.