ALERT: $2.9 million Rock Island Trail funding eliminated by Missouri Senate - federal funding will be lost if not spent this year - pls contact your Missouri legislators

Please contact your Missouri Senator and Representative this week and ask them to support the Rock Island Trail funding in HB 6.  A $2.9 million in federal grant has been approved for the Rock Island Trail. However, the grant must be  appropriated by the Missouri legislature.  The governor requested the appropriation, the Missouri House approved it, but the Missouri Senate, led by Springfield Senator Lincoln Hough, zeroed out the funding. 

The Missouri Senate has voted to eliminate a $2.9 million federal grant for the Rock Island Trail

If the $2.9 million in federal funding is not allocated by the legislature, it cannot be spent elsewhere.  It will simply be returned to the federal government and lost to Missouri.

We have one last chance to restore the funding.  When HB 6 goes to Conference Committee, the committee can decide to follow the House version (which includes the $2.9 million funding) or the Senate version (which zeroes out the funding). 

This decision will be made by Friday, May 5th, 5pm - when all 2024 budget bills must be complete.

How you can help

Please contact your own Missouri State Senate and Missouri State Representative and ask them to support the $2.7 million federal grant for the Rock Island Trail which was approved by the House but removed by the Senate.

• Look up your Missouri State Senator and Representative here.
   
• Email and/or call both of them with the message: "I strongly support the Rock Island Trail State Park and hope you will support it, too. Please ask the HB 6 Conference Committee members to support the $2.7 million federal grant for the Rock Island Trail which the House included in HB 6 but the Senate eliminated."
   
• You can explain that you live in the district and are a constituent.
   
• You can explain in a sentence or two why the Rock Island Trail is important to you and your part of the state, and why opposition to these kinds of trail projects is damaging to Missouri.
   
• A brief message is as good as a long one. 
   
• Please be positive and persuasive - that's what helps the most!

More details about the Rock Island Trail funding this year

• Missouri State Parks applied for and received an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Tourism Grant through the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to be used specifically for development of the Rock Island Trail.  
   
• This $2.9
  

  The red portion of this map is the new Rock Island Trail State Park. The $2.9 million will build 30 miles of that route, from Eldon to Versailles and Belle to Owensville.
  million of Federal Funding listed in HB 6 needs to be appropriated now and spent by 2026 on the Rock Island Trail. The grant has been received and the funding is available.
   
• If the federal funding is not appropriated by the Missouri legislature, it cannot be used for any other project or purpose. It will simply be returned to the federal government and lost.
   
• Funding from the grant will be used to construct a 30-mile pilot section of the Rock Island Trail, from Eldon to Versailles and from Belle to Owensville. Using the EDA grant funding to connect these communities will expand upon the revitalization efforts already underway.
   
• Eldon, Belle, Owensville and Versailles received other federal grant funding that these rural communities matched, demonstrating their degree of commitment for completing the trail.
   
• Missouri will benefit from the development of the Rock Island Trail. The proposed trail has already begun to generate economic investment from existing businesses looking to expand in anticipation of future demand from trail users. Establishment of new trail-oriented businesses has begun in the rural communities along the corridor.
   
• The $2.9 million is found in the House version of HB 6 (page 29-30) but you will see that line item has been eliminated in the Senate version of HB 6.  HB 6 page is here.

Background and further information about the statewide Rock Island Trail project here.