Dear Chairwoman Renee Erickson and Members of the Senate Committee on Commerce,
We have been involved with trails for over 25 years, starting with the Prairie Spirit Rail Trail, which is now a state park. We enjoy hiking and biking and the great outdoors. We were part of a group of 12 that built the Southwind Rail Trail that runs from Iola to Humboldt. After the Southwind opened in 2013 and construction of the Lehigh trails began, we again jumped in to help. Throughout the years we have spent countless hours keeping up maintenance on the trails.
Transforming the Lehigh property into a state park with a lake and trails accessible to the public would be a huge win for our community and the entire state park system.
It’s been great to see the cultural change in our community in recent years. People are focusing more on healthy lifestyles and getting out on their bikes and hiking the trails. We see firsthand how much they are used by people of all ages. We know it helps with not only physical health, but mental health as well.
With the Lehigh property connecting to the Southwind and Prairie Spirit Rail Trail, it would provide one more way for people to get out and really see what the great State of Kansas has to offer.
We’re in full support of making this a state park so we can be assured that all the effort put into making Lehigh a popular destination will be sustained for future generations to enjoy.
We appreciate your support in getting HB2331 through the legislative process and making the Lehigh Portland State Park become a reality.
Sincerely,
David and Lisa Fontaine,
Iola Kan.
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Dear Chairwoman Renee Erickson and Members of the Senate Committee on Commerce,
I, Jonathan Adams (Lehigh Portland Trail’s biggest fan), am writing to express my enthusiastic support for the creation of Lehigh Portland State Park as the newest addition to our wonderful state park system.
I have already been to Little Jerusalem, Kanopolis, and Mushroom Rock State Park in 2023 and 25 trips to the Lehigh Portland trails.
According to my camera roll, I have have taken over 8,000 photos just with my camera phone in my six years of living in lola, not to mention those taken with my professional camera.
I really love Lehigh. It has been a tremendous blessing to our quality of life. When my wife and I moved here six years ago we figured we would need to go to Cross Timbers State Park to hike and enjoy nature.
We knew nothing about Lehigh back then. We were elated to find out that we had this incredible outdoor bonanza basically on the edge of our little town.
Since then I have hiked, mountain biked, photographed, led tours, dragged all my friends and family out there, participated in a Kansas! Magazine cover story with Michelle Terry of rural Topeka (with my shot as the cover), volunteered countless times for trail maintenance and clean up, and become an all around unofficial ambassador.
These are the attractions and amenities that make an area sticky. They make you want to move here and stay. We need more public areas like this.
My wife and I own three Airbnbs and we have already had guests who have visited just for the bike trails. I think this could easily grow with the addition of Lehigh Portland State Park as the southern terminus for the Prairie Spirit Trail and the northern bookend of the Southwind complimenting Humboldt’s breathtaking Base Camp. This would most certainly become a premier bicycling destination. We also have a thriving bike shop/outdoors store on our town square which is almost unheard of in rural Kansas.
