Contact your Missouri Senators to ask for support for Rock Island Trail Funding

Governor Parson requested $69 million of federal ARPA funding to build the vast majority of the new Rock Island Trail State Park - all of the "hard parts" of the route from Beaufort to Eldon, including the major bridges and tunnels.

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

There is a lot of support for full funding in Missouri Legislature.  But there are also many competing priorities - and some Senators have indicated that they oppose or have many questions about the funding. 

Senate Appropriations Committee funding decisions will be made during the month of April and early May. Can you take a few minutes before then to contact our legislators?

How you can help - Write or call the Missouri Senate Appropriations Chair and Appropriations Committee members with a brief message

Mail, call, or email legislators on the Senate Appropriations Committee (contact list below).

• Mail, email, and/or call Senator Dan Hegeman (Chair), Senator Lincoln Hough (Vice-Chair) and also any Senators on the Committee who live near you. (Full committee contact list below.) 

• Please also send director@mobikefed.org a copy of your message if possible (it helps us have an idea of the response). 

• For Senators who live near you, let them where you live and that you are contacting them because you live/work/are located in the same area.

• A brief message is fine - preferred, even.  For individuals writing, just 2-3 sentences is enough.  For agencies, elected officials, cities, counties, businesses, and organizations, a short one-page letter is plenty.

• Please fully fund the Rock Island Trail at the $69 million recommended by Gov. Parson.
   
• This is a statewide project that will benefit communities all across the state from the largest to the smallest.
   
• Full funding will allow the full trail and connections to the statewide trail system to be completed rapidly - until we have a full trail fully connected we won't see the local and statewide economic benefits.
   
• If you represent an agency, city, county, business, or organization, explain why the Rock Island Trail is important to your organization and the economic impact you expect from the project.
   
• You can also include a few sentences or a short story explaining why the trail is important to you.
   
• If you can, write the letter on your agency, business,  organization, etc letterhead, and/or indicate in the letter text that you are writing on behalf of that agency, business, or organization. If you are an elected official, or agency/business/organization staff or leader who is writing on behalf of the organization, be sure to mention that.
   
• Below is a sample letter with some ideas you can mention.
   
• If you call, you'll most likely talk to the Senator's legislative staff. "I'm XXX from YYY. I'm calling to ask Sen. ZZZ to support full funding for the Rock Island Trail.  We support it because XXX. Thank you!"  Calls are very, very effective!
   
• Mailed & faxed letters are very, very effective for reaching Senators.  Even if you call or send an electronic message, a follow-up letter in the mail and/or via fax really increases the impact.
   
• Note: We are not providing a sample message because it is so much more effective when each agency/organization/person writes an individualized message. Legislators just ignore cookie cutter form messages. Your message doesn't need to be  long -  a paragraph about you/your organization and or a paragraph or two about why you support the project, is plenty. The main idea to communicate is: We/I as XXXX support full funding for the Rock Island Trail.

Thank you! When Missouri agencies, organizations, businesses, cities, counties, and citizens work together to speak up about their priorities, it really makes a difference! 

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.

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.

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 Letter of Support from the Missouri Park Association

This is a letter written by the Missouri Park Association and co-signed by dozens of organizations and businesses from around Missouri. You can use some ideas and facts from the letter in your own phone calls and email messages.

If you represent and organization, agency, city, county, or other group that would like to send a printed letter of support for the Rock Island Trail funding, this is a great model letter. Please put your letter on your letterhead if possible, have it signed by your organization's leader or responsible party.

Again PLEASE DO NOT COPY this letter as the Senators are very sensitive to "spam" and copy/paste letters. But you can use some of the ideas from this letter in your own message. Your own message or letter can be MUCH SHORTER than this letter.

Date

The Honorable (full name)

Missouri Senate

201 W Capitol Ave

Jefferson City, Missouri 65101

Subject: Support for HB 3020 - America Rescue Plan Act Appropriations for the Rock Island Corridor

Dear Senator (last name), 

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.

 

The undersigned organizations/communities write to express our endorsement for the funding recommendation of $69 million for the Rock Island Corridor included in House Bill 20 (America Rescue Plan Act Appropriations). The addition of the Rock Island Corridor to the state park system on December 14, 2021, actively sought by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Missouri State Parks since 1993, is an outstanding opportunity for the state to provide a cross-state trail experience through the rugged northern Ozarks. The requested appropriation would enable DNR to move forward with development of the former rail bed into a hiking and biking trail in partnership with the many small towns and numerous civic organizations along the route.

Missouri will benefit from the development of the Rock Island Corridor through statewide economic benefits and local community revitalization in the nineteen eager and welcoming rural towns along its route. The 144-mile Rock Island Trail will build off the success of the existing Katy Trail State Park. Both trails combined will benefit the 40 percent of Missourians who live within 50 miles of the corridor along with countless other Missourians and visitors to our state. In 2020, the Katy Trail recorded more than 500,000 visitors, and in a study years ago when visitation was not as high, the Katy generated nearly $18.5 million a year in economic impact for the state. The Rock Island, with even more communities and small businesses along its route, should generate even greater returns to the state, and it will also pay local dividends in child health and safety and social and cultural enrichment.

The Rock Island/Katy Trail loop will connect Missouri from east to west through the scenic Ozarks and back along the Missouri River and will be one of the longest contiguous trail loop systems in the world, with unique potential to drive significant regional, national, and international tourism to Missouri. 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.

Development of the Rock Island Trail is a significant infrastructure investment for Missouri that will have far-reaching benefits for generations. Thank you for your consideration of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to impact such a large part of our great state and my local community.     

Sincerely,

XXX

XXX

Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee Contact List

• Please contact Appropriations Committee Chair Dan Hegeman and Vice Chair Lincoln Hough.
   
• In addition, please contact any representative(s) on the committee from your area or region. First priority: Committee member closest to you. If you have time, contact those next closest.
  • In your message, mention that you live/work/are located in that area or region if you do. You may not be in their district per se but they are appointed to the committee to represent their region, not only their own district.
     
• For those representatives outside the Rock Island Trail area, be sure to mention that  the Rock Island Trail is a project of statewide importance and economic impact.
  • The trail will reach all the way across the state, impacting both the St Louis & Kansas City areas and everywhere in between.  Connections to northern and southern parts of Missouri  -  between literally every part of Missouri and the new trail - are in the works.  The trail will help bring millions of visitors each year and improve the quality of life in the state - benefitting not just communities on this one segment of the trail but the entire state.

For each Committee member, counties represented (and home town) are shown.  If you want a more detailed view of each member's district, click the Senator's name. Also helpful: Budget Committee web page - Statewide map of Missouri Senate Districts/Current Senator

Senate Appropriations Committee

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" shown below, instead.

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.

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.