REMINDER: Rails-to-Trails Informational Meeting Tonight
Thursday, April 18th, 2019 -- 1:18 PM
-The Neillsville Improvement Corporation has undertaken a large project to benefit Neillsville and Clark County with the Rails to Trails Project.An informational meeting is being held tonight at 6:30pm in the County Board Room of the Clark County Courthouse. I spoke with Dan Clough, the President of the Neillsville Improvement Corporation, or NIC, and he explained why NIC is taking on this large project.
“As to why we’re doing this? This would be a huge economic development boon for, not only Neillsville, but also Granton and Chili. With stores closing, jobs getting tight, we need economic development. People keep saying, ‘somebody should do something.’ Well, NIC is trying to do something.”
“There’s still a lot of hoops to jump through. There’s money to raise. There’s leases to sign. Because NIC does not own this yet, I can’t come to a formal agreement with adjacent landowners. And some adjacent landowners have criticized NIC for not having the full plan yet. We’re in the process of creating that."
The meeting is being held in order to clear up some of the confusion and stop the spread of misinformation regarding the project.
“We’re going to put an informational presentation on. The specific landowners we want to talk with one-on-one because each situation is slightly different, so it’s very difficult to talk in generalities in front of a group. What this informational presentation will be is the general intro of the project, the history of the project, what the project concept it. That it’s a non-motorized recreation trail. That it will be a packed gravel surface. We will try to work with landowners so they have the least disruption. We are more than willing to give out leases to adjacent landowners so they can continue their operation with as little disruption as possible. And that’s the process we’re going through now.”
“We’re continuing to recruit project partners. We’ve been working with the various organizations involved in the state, city and county plans. We’ve been working with them, keeping them updated. We’re going to continue to work with those partners. We’re recruiting other partners including the County Health Department, the Eat Right, Be Fit Coalition and the DNR. We’re trying to sort this all out because this is an enormous project.
The NIC group has also been accused of doing this project behind the scenes and not talking with landowners about it. However, that just isn’t the case.
“Every single one of our meetings has been public. It has been talked about in many other public meetings. As I said, NIC had six public meetings to create the list that this project showed up on. NIC didn’t come up with it in a vacuum. And, as I said, people have been talking about this for decades. The DNR has this on a plan that was published in 2003.”
“For that reason, because it’s supported by so many things, there is money available for this type of thing. For acquisition of the property and the trail building. We want to create a good thing here and there are many people who want to get in on creating a good thing.”
“There are some people who are critical of it. I hope to sit down with them and talk through their issues. Most of the issues that I have heard expressed have already been researched and answered and they aren’t as big an issue as being presented. This has not been done in secret and there’s still an enormous amount of work to be done on this. This is a work in progress. This could still fall through. Nothing is dyed in the wool. I would really hate for it to fall through because it would be a huge loss for all three communities and the county.”
Once again, the Rails to Trails Informational Presentation is being held today beginning at 6:30pm in the County Board room at the Clark County Courthouse. The public is welcome to attend.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.