County commissioners made the right trail decision

To the editor,
In 2015, a majority of McLeod County Commissioners voted to organize a committee to create a McLeod County Trail Plan.
The stated goal was to unite McLeod County around trail development. Former Commissioner Sheldon Nies stated that, “It would put everyone in the loop.” At that time, Nies speculated that the county could have similarly benefited from an inclusive committee the prior year, when the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources considered, and declined, to extend the Dakota Rail Regional Trail to connect to the Luce Line State Trail for a third year.
Last week, the commissioners voted to move forward to gravel the Dakota Trail from Lester Prairie to County Road 4. During the Aug. 6 meeting, it was pointed out that Lester Prairie voted in support of the plan to complete the drainage and gravel project - as proposed.
It was also pointed out at the meeting that Silver Lake did not offer a recommendation at all because they were against paving the Dakota Trail. Only the Hutchinson City Council voted to recommend against this effort to apply for Legacy (Amendment) funding to pay for this work. What happened to that “inclusive” intention to unite McLeod County around trail development?
Thankfully, last week all five commissioners listened to the feedback from the county to address safety and water drainage issues sooner rather than later. Graveling the trail is consistent with the 2016 Dakota Trails Plan that states “McLeod County will actively pursue funding which would address corridor improvements, preservation, safety, and usability”
The next trail effort for the commissioners to lead is addressing the unsafe and incomplete horse trail on the Luce Line Trail. Prior to the paving of the Luce Line in 2015, there was a usable horse trail for county residents and visitors to use that was made of low-maintenance gravel. Paving this trail ended the Luce Line corridor as a horse trail because a continuous route from Winsted no longer exists.
In January 2019, the commissioners sent a letter to the Minnesota DNR documenting the unsafe condition of the Luce Line for horses and asked for a DNR plan to fix this. To date, the DNR has not yet taken any concrete action to respond to the commissioner’s letter.
In March 2019, residents at the annual meeting at all 14 of McLeod’s Townships completed a trail survey to document their preferences for McLeod trail development. Some of the key findings from this survey, that were shared with the commissioners were:
• Eighty-six percent voted that a McLeod County Commissioner be assigned to the McLeod County Rail Authority board of directors to negotiate cost sharing for trail development and maintenance
• Eighty-three percent voted that a maintenance budget plan be developed by the McLeod Trail Committee before any new Legacy grant applications are submitted by the McLeod commissioners for more paved trails
• Seventy-one percent voted that McLeod County should focus first on fixing the Luce Line horse trail before developing the Dakota Rail Trail
McLeod’s commissioners are respectfully requested to address these open survey results from the county’s 14-townships as the next steps for county trails.

Jim Bobier, Acoma Township resident