West of Haskell Ave. and east of Learnard Ave. from east 11th to east 23rd street, sits an abandoned rail corridor—what used to be the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad.
Three years ago, east Lawrence citizens submitted a request to the Lawrence city commission to develop this abandoned railroad track into a trail. The concrete trail would span a length of about three miles and would be used for walking, jogging, and biking.
One east Lawrence resident, John Rasmussen, got involved with the project five to seven years ago—before community members officially submitted the plan to the city commission in 2004. He took an interest in the trail after seeing similar projects in other cities.
“I’ve seen other rails to trails projects and always thought that this is a good candidate for that. It would provide a great pedestrian and bicycle route. And, I think it would provide a wonderful green space for many neighborhoods,” he said.
Rasmussen has attended numerous neighborhood meetings about the trail. Two years again he attended one every month, but recently has not.
Currently, Rasmussen is waiting for the trail to begin construction.
“The main thing is that it (the trail construction) actually follows through. Hopefully it gets completed,” Rasmussen said.
Now, three years after the city commission submission, the trail’s construction is still in limbo. However, if the Lawrence parks and recreation department’s most recent funding request is granted, construction of the trail could begin as soon as early 2008.
According to Mark Hecker, Lawrence parks and recreation superintendent, “We applied for a Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) grant last year and weren’t able to get funding, so we’ve just recently applied for a new grant. We’ve been master planning this past year, which we didn’t do in the previous grant application.” Hecker expects this year’s request to be granted because of this.
However, the current funding request from the KDOT is for $750,000 of the $2.4 estimated cost of the trail. According to Hecker the cost of the trail has doubled since first proposed. Although, he said the increase in cost is largely because of amenities not originally included in the plan.
Two major amenities now included are a spray park and a playground.
“It’s not just a trail, we’re trying to build park facilities on the way too,” Hecker said. “We don’t have facilities like that on the east side of town,” he added.
According to Hecker the spray park will be active during the summer and will feature jets of water that shoot out of the ground. The playground will be open year-round and will be a typical playground with slide, jungle gym, and wood chips.
As for the remaining cost of the trail, Hecker said sales tax would fund it.
However, according to Bruce Muzzy, member of the parks and recreation advisory board, he has not heard anything about a sales tax increase to help fund the trail. Even if one is used, Muzzy is skeptical the money would go solely to the parks and recreation department.
In the early 90s Muzzy said a one-cent sales tax increase passed to support the parks and recreation department, but since at least in part has been used for other purposes.
“They’ve used it (the money) for many other things,” Muzzy said.
However, Muzzy said some of the money from the sales tax increase was used to build the Lawrence Aquatic Center in western Lawrence. He said he thought the remaining money was used for things like street maintenance.
As for opposition to the trail, both Hecker and Muzzy said they are not aware of any.
However, according to Rasmussen, “I’m sure there’s been opposition to the trail. People are probably concerned with how it gets paid for and what the development would look like.” Though, Rasmussen said there isn’t a lot of opposition to the trail—which may have to do with the area it will be in once completed.
“The east side of Lawrence is a more depressed side of Lawrence. They (the east Lawrence people) wanted to be included,” (in the parks and recreation system) Muzzy said. He added that there’s not anything like the Burroughs Creek Trail in the area right now.
Once completed, administrators and citizens alike agree the trail will make east Lawrence a better place to live.
“I think it will be very positive. I’ve talked to a lot of people who want a trail all over Lawrence. The parks and recreation plan is to connect the existing trails. This would be one link to the trail,” Muzzy said.
Rasmussen agreed with Muzzy.
“It could be the start of a great network of trails that we could have in the city. Parks are great things for communities,” he said.
Although, funding again remains the key issue.
Muzzy said Lawrence currently lacks the funds to build a trail that would span Lawrence and is instead focusing on financing the Burroughs Creek Trail.
“The biggest thing is how to finance it. So far it’s just trying to fund it through the parks and recreation commission,” Muzzy said. He said that there are no private funds available for the trail. “From what I’ve seen they’re (the parks and recreation department) trying really hard to build this.”
Muzzy said he didn’t know how long the trail would take to complete—as the time it takes to build again depends on when the parks and recreation department receives funding.
Above: Trail Map (in Red)
Map: Parks & Recreation Department