New Ulm bike trail is

focus of panel meeting

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Although it was one of more than 100 such presentations they will hear this year, members of the state House Capital Investment committee listened intently Thursday as the need for $1.15 million in state funding for Phase 2 of the New Ulm bike trail project was detailed.

The committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, who doubles as assistant majority leader, has been on the road this summer visiting projects that the 2002 State Legislature is being asked to fund during its capital expenditures and bonding session. The committee met with New Ulm and DNR officials at Flandrau State Park.

James Clark, R-New Ulm, listened as City Engineer Steve Koehler described the terrain that the bike trail would cover, crossing steeply sloping land and snaking above the flood plain property belonging to Schell's Brewery and Flandrau State Park.

"Various approaches to the design were attempted," Koehler explained, "but there was only one solution. That was to build a 2,000-foot timber bridge which would end just outside the park."

In answer to Knoblach's question, Koehler said, "There was no way around building a bridge. There was just no way to have cut-backs in the trail." Legislators also were told that no other avenues of approach to the park that wouldn't require a bridge existed either.

The bridge represents most of the projected cost of $1,645,000 for Phase 2a that runs from 20th South Street to the state park boundary. Phase 2b, which is within the park, is projected to cost $685,000 although DNR officials said they had yet to conduct their own cost analysis of the park's portion of the trail.

The city's state funding request is broken down into $910,000 for Phase 2a and $240,000 for Phase 2b.

Koehler distributed a preliminary cost estimate and projected funding summary showing that the estimated total project for the 10-12-mile trail, which would encircle New Ulm, is $4,382,000.

It would be paid for by an investment of $1,320,000 from the city, $474,000 from Flandrau State Park, $102,000 in DNR matching grant money, $1,276,000 in federal funds, and the $1.15 million from the state legislature.

Clark pointed out the New Ulm trail would fit into the trail envisioned in his legislation creating the Minnesota Valley trail that would run from Big Stone park on the South Dakota border to the Twin Cities.

Rep. Henry Kalis, DFL-Wells, wondered whether "we aren't just building pieces of trail here and there."

Cheryl Heidi, regional DNR administrator, replied that the DNR was charged with carrying out the planning and development of the Minnesota Valley trail. As such, the DNR would be "hiring a trail development specialist to help cities up and down the river" connect into such a trail.

"In 1996, the Legislature asked the DNR to provide a comprehensive recreation plan for the river," Heidi explained, "and it envisioned such a trail so the foot prints are already in place."

"But, what I want to know," Knoblach said, "is which side of the river are those foot prints on? The north or the south?"

"The foot prints cross over from one side to the other along the river, but here in the New Ulm area they would be on the south side," she answered. "In this case, it works well."

Regarding DNR funding of the bike trail, "typically when a trail comes into the park, we fund 20 percent of the cost," another DNR official said.

Kalis cautioned the New Ulm contingent that "when it comes to funding recreation versus economic development, particularly when money is tight, economic development will win out."

Knoblach commended New Ulm officials for having a "good project;" however, he said later that there "will have to be a lot of prioritizing when it comes to deciding which projects are in and which are out."

He said requests total more than $2 billion, and the eventual funding bill isn't likely to be more than a quarter of that. He also warned that projects like New Ulm's must compete against all the departments of state government.

"We're a little bit of a jack-of-all-trades when you're dealing with public works," Knoblach said. "We have to determine which are the highest and most urgent priorities."