Franklin County Needs To Refocus Its Train Of Thought

Details of our president’s deviant behavior have reached around the world with the speed of light.

Meanwhile, good news about the wholesome benefits of rail-trails hasn’t even reached across the state of Washington.

Farmers and ranchers on the Franklin County Planning Commission are reluctant to approve development of an abandoned railroad into a trail that would link Pasco with Spokane.

The commissioners have suggested that users of the 130-mile Columbia Plateau Trail would torch the county’s crops, trash its fields with litter and foul rural areas with crime and mayhem.

This is the county that shares economic benefits of mayhem that roars into the Tri-Cities with summer hydroplane races on the Columbia River.

How can Franklin County be worried about hikers, mountain bikers and horse riders?

Burlington Northern pulled up rails on the old Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway and turned over the route to the state in 1991. A master plan has been created to develop the corridor into a 3,900-acre linear state park.

At a recent hearing, Franklin County officials heard from about 60 people who were divided for and against allowing the trail to be developed.

State Parks staff emphasized the trail will be restricted to non-motorized use, but the best they could salvage was getting the issue tabled until April.

The north portion of the trail from Spokane to Fish Lake is being developed by the City of Spokane, with work scheduled to begin this spring. That section will be paved.

The trail from Fish Lake to Cheney already is paved.

The rest of the trail, however, will be a crushed-rock surface ideal for mountain bikes, runners, walkers and equestrians.

These are not people to be feared.

Spokane County has years of experience with a popular trail that links 39 miles of urban and suburban areas along the Spokane River and into Idaho.

“I can’t say I’ve ever heard a property owner complain that people were using the Centennial Trail as access for crime, vandalism or littering,” said Wyn Birkenthal, Spokane County Parks manager.

“What I do see are ads for new apartment buildings or homes that say `Easy access to Centennial Trail.’

“It’s definitely an asset for property values.”

The key is the ban on motorized vehicles.

“When people aren’t in a vehicle, they can’t haul in a load of garbage, and they don’t seem to be out looking for trouble,” Birkenthal said.

“As long as we provide adequate parking so trail users don’t block private driveways, the problems for landowners are minimal.”

Bill Fraser, State Parks project manager, said Franklin County’s concerns are overblown.

The typical trail user “is not going to go off the trail even 50 feet, let alone a half-mile to break into somebody’s house,” he said.

Fraser said parks staff will attempt to ease Franklin County officials’ concerns before they revisit the issue on April 6.

In the short run, tail-dragging in Pasco has been a boost for the Spokane area.

State Parks planners originally had planned to start trail construction at both ends of the trail and work toward the middle. That would allow population centers in Spokane County and the Tri-Cities to enjoy portions of the trail in the decade or so required to fund and complete the project, which is estimated to cost $4 million.

That’s a fraction of what the 130-mile dream would cost if some 7,000 laborers hadn’t toiled for pennies an hour decades ago to grade a rail line through the tortured but gorgeous scablands.

Construction of 7 miles of trail near Ice Harbor Dam was scheduled to begin this month. But since Franklin County balked after State Parks had signed on with a contractor, all first-phase work has been shifted to the stretch south of Cheney.

Instead of getting 12 miles of trail completed this spring in Spokane and Lincoln counties, the contractor will work on 19 miles of trail.

If all goes well, trail users in May will be able to launch southward onto a new crushed-rock trail from Cheney-Spangle Road.

They’ll travel into the scablands, through nearly 5 miles of Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, to the Williams Lake Road south of Rodna.

This week, the contractor has been working near Amber Lake. Custom-designed heavy equipment moves at a snail’s pace gathering the fist-sized rock that once formed the foundation for ties and rails. The ballast is crushed and mixed with dirt that will be packed into a trail.

The Spokane area will enjoy immediate benefits of the trail, just as the Wallace area got a boost from the 7,500 bikers who pedaled the Route of the Hiawatha Trail in its first season last year.

But hold the celebration.

Eastern Washington and North Idaho have a world-class bonanza of rail-trail possibilities that are only beginning to be realized.

We all lose if officials don’t see the light at the end of the five tunnels along the Columbia Plateau Trail in Franklin County.

Ironically, the biggest losers could be in Franklin County, especially small businesses in rural towns such as Washtucna and Kahlotus.

The most stunning features of the Columbia Plateau Trail, including rock canyons, caves and towering trestles, are near those sputtering towns.

Build the trail and people will come. Decent trail-loving people.

This is good news that somehow needs to reach Franklin County.