Allen County commissioners will huddle with Southwind Rail Trail volunteers to develop a plan for dealing with concerns of some landowners.
Jim Potter, through whose land the trail passes about a mile south of Iola, wants a field crossing upgraded, fences rebuilt and brush and debris cleaned from ditches on either side of the trail.
Bud Sifers, who lives just north of Potter, also wants trail-side brush to be removed, which Sifers says inhibits drainage.
Commissioners heard Potter’s concerns a week ago. Tuesday they went to see for themselves.
Commissioner Tom Williams agreed a field access road over the trail on Potter’s place needed attention. He also noted that water was standing in low areas near the trail, which in his estimation wasn’t a recent phenomena.
Potter complained the county did not have a solid plan in place before the old railroad right of way was improved to trail status for walking and biking. He also claimed laws having to do with trail development didn’t permit the trail in the first place. He referred to a Supreme Court decision, without being specific.
Williams said he read the decision and had a different interpretation.
“I guess you need to get a lawyer,” Williams said, but allowed “we’re reasonable” and want to do what they could to reach agreement.
“We’d be glad to work with you,” Commissioner Dick Works said. “We can do the fence.”
Before leaving their meeting to congregate on the trail, County Counselor Alan Weber said the county was responsible for keeping fences along it in usable condition, which meant capable of holding livestock but not necessarily new from the ground up.
“We need a responsible plan,” he said, pointing out that when the railroad used the right of way it kept up adjacent property and it, as does the county now, had an obligation to keep the trail from becoming a nuisance for nearby landowners.
Potter showed an aerial photograph of the right of way from when the railroad was active. It showed brush and vegetation along the right of way was not nearly as profuse as is today.
Potter estimated it had been about 12 years since the railroad actively maintained the right of way.
When trail proponents first thought about redoing the right of way as a trail more than two years ago, the old rail bed was overgrown with vegetation and areas along each side were heavily laden with brush, trees and weeds. The volunteers cleared all from the top of the right of way. County crews then laid a trail of crushed limestone, which today, according to trail manager David Fontaine, is well-used by walkers and bikers.
Potter disputed “well-used,” but in less than an hour late Tuesday morning half a dozen people were noted on the trail, some even while light rain was falling.
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