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After a period of relative calm, debate over the right of the Central Kansas Conservancy to develop a trail from McPherson to Lindsborg has again boiled to the surface. The issue has been brought up both in meetings of the CKC and of the McPherson County Commission, where landowners have argued the group is violating state law in maintaining the trail’s right of way.
In the mid-1990s, the CKC secured rail right of way stretching north from McPherson to Lindsborg along a former railroad. Since then development of the trail has been slow, with state law complicating efforts to construct a recreational trail both to Lindsborg and east to Marion.
Competing law
The dispute centers on two competing pieces of law that govern the creation of rail trails in Kansas. The first, the federal Rails-to-Trails Act of 1983, allows rail companies to pass on deeds to sections of rail right of way to local governments and trail groups for conversion into non-motorized trails.
This legislation comes into conflict with K.S.A. 58-32 sections 11-16, which imposes state regulations on the creation of all recreational trails. It lists a number of rules and requirements for the construction of all recreational trails, addressing matters such as the installation of fencing, maintenance of trail bed, prevention of littering and purchasing of liability insurance.
It is here that landowners say the efforts of the CKC are illegal. Because they do not abide by some of the terms of the state law — such as the establishment of a bond with the county — they feel that CKC members are trespassing on their personal property when they enter the right of way to perform maintenance.
Blocked from compliance
Tracy Presnell, one of the people whose land borders the right of way, said until the CKC comes into full compliance with the Kansas law, he and others like him consider the group’s presence on the trail to be trespassing.
Yet Ronn Peters, a member of the CKC, says the group is trying to comply with the law but is being stalled by landowners who have constructed fence barricades across the trail right of way. In order to conduct maintenance along the trail, CKC members must be on the right of way to which they hold the deed but to which landowners feel they have no right.
This point was exemplified by an incident a few weeks ago in which volunteer CKC trail workers entered the right of way to conduct weed maintenance as required by the Kansas law. They were confronted by the adjacent landowner, and both parties called the McPherson County Sheriff’s Department. The reporting deputy told the landowner that the volunteers were within their rights and allowed them to finish conducting their maintenance.
Opponents of the project also argue the CKC’s failure to establish a bond with the county further bars them from developing the trail. Peters acknowledged while the group has indeed failed to establish a bond, past negotiations on an amount had not produced an amount agreeable to both the county and CKC. In his opinion, it is the responsibility of the county to enforce the law, and while he said the group would be willing to re-enter negotiations on the county’s request, he also was happy to allow county officials to ignore the matter.
After a period of relative calm, debate over the right of the Central Kansas Conservancy to develop a trail from McPherson to Lindsborg has again boiled to the surface. The issue has been brought up both in meetings of the CKC and of the McPherson County Commission, where landowners have argued the group is violating state law in maintaining the trail’s right of way.
In the mid-1990s, the CKC secured rail right of way stretching north from McPherson to Lindsborg along a former railroad. Since then development of the trail has been slow, with state law complicating efforts to construct a recreational trail both to Lindsborg and east to Marion.
Competing law
The dispute centers on two competing pieces of law that govern the creation of rail trails in Kansas. The first, the federal Rails-to-Trails Act of 1983, allows rail companies to pass on deeds to sections of rail right of way to local governments and trail groups for conversion into non-motorized trails.
This legislation comes into conflict with K.S.A. 58-32 sections 11-16, which imposes state regulations on the creation of all recreational trails. It lists a number of rules and requirements for the construction of all recreational trails, addressing matters such as the installation of fencing, maintenance of trail bed, prevention of littering and purchasing of liability insurance.
It is here that landowners say the efforts of the CKC are illegal. Because they do not abide by some of the terms of the state law — such as the establishment of a bond with the county — they feel that CKC members are trespassing on their personal property when they enter the right of way to perform maintenance.
Blocked from compliance
Tracy Presnell, one of the people whose land borders the right of way, said until the CKC comes into full compliance with the Kansas law, he and others like him consider the group’s presence on the trail to be trespassing.
Yet Ronn Peters, a member of the CKC, says the group is trying to comply with the law but is being stalled by landowners who have constructed fence barricades across the trail right of way. In order to conduct maintenance along the trail, CKC members must be on the right of way to which they hold the deed but to which landowners feel they have no right.
This point was exemplified by an incident a few weeks ago in which volunteer CKC trail workers entered the right of way to conduct weed maintenance as required by the Kansas law. They were confronted by the adjacent landowner, and both parties called the McPherson County Sheriff’s Department. The reporting deputy told the landowner that the volunteers were within their rights and allowed them to finish conducting their maintenance.
Opponents of the project also argue the CKC’s failure to establish a bond with the county further bars them from developing the trail. Peters acknowledged while the group has indeed failed to establish a bond, past negotiations on an amount had not produced an amount agreeable to both the county and CKC. In his opinion, it is the responsibility of the county to enforce the law, and while he said the group would be willing to re-enter negotiations on the county’s request, he also was happy to allow county officials to ignore the matter.
Searching for
a downside
Arguments against the project have primarily materialized as matters of private property. Members of the opposition feel they have been wronged by the transfer of ownership of the right of way from rail companies to the CKC, particularly as landowners have to pay property taxes on the land.
“If you owned something, a piece of property, it doesn’t matter what, and an agency comes in and says you own it but you can’t use it and have to pay taxes on it, how would you feel?” Presnell asked.
The CKC contends that, regardless of who does pay the taxes, they are exempt as a 501c3 non-profit organization, an argument supported by the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals.
It further argues the community as well as the landowners would benefit from the trail a great deal. Peters said the two lines stretching from McPherson to Lindsborg and Marion would connect five colleges and five high schools to one another, providing training ground for school teams and a venue for cross-country foot races. In addition, Peters said the trails would provide runners and equestrians long expanses of uninterrupted ground on which they can enjoy their hobbies.
“It’s a thing of beauty,” Peters said. “Are we going to let a dozen people keep 30,000 people from a thing of beauty?”
Laying the groundwork
Although it still hopes to eventually construct an improved trail bed north to Lindsborg, the CKC is focusing on those areas facing little resistance. It has plans to install a four- to six-inch-thick trail of crushed limestone rock from the trail’s head just west of Old Highway 81 on Northview Avenue/Moccasin Road to the Hilton elevator about 3.5 miles north of McPherson.
