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Health & Fitness

Do We Really Need All These Trails?

Here’s an abridged version of a bill (HF2497) sponsored by nine MN House of Representative members (8 Democrats and 1 Republican) to spend over $32 million on trails and state parks.  Do we really need all this?  I don’t think so.


$32,650,000 is appropriated for the following projects:

    • $500,000 to acquire land for and develop approximately four miles of the Blazing Star Trail from Myre-Big Island State Park to Hayward;

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  • $750,000 to develop and pave approximately five miles of the Casey Jones Trail in Pipestone County from County Road 16 through Woodstock and to improve the trailhead in Pipestone and interpretive signs along the existing trail;

  • $2,750,000 for the Cuyuna Lakes Trail segment from Deerwood to Crosby and  the Sagamore Unit of the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, to connect to the Paul Bunyan Trail and into Lum Park and then to the airport;

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  • $2,000,000 to acquire land and develop the Gateway Trail from Pine Point Park in May Township into William O'Brien State Park;

  • $3,000,000 to acquire land and develop the Gitchi-Gami Trail from a Department of Transportation wayside rest on Trunk Highway 61 at Cutface Creek to the existing trail terminus on the west edge of Grand Marais;

  • $1,500,000 to acquire land and develop an approximately five mile spur from the Glacial Lakes Trail through New London and into Sibley State Park, including a bridge over Trunk Highway 71;

  • $1,300,000 to acquire land and develop an approximately five mile segment for the Goodhue Pioneer Trail from White Willow into Goodhue;

  • $3,100,000 to acquire land and develop an approximately nine mile segment of the Heartland Trail from Detroit Lakes into Frazee;

  • $2,000,000 to pave approximately 28.5 miles of the Luce Line Trail from the Carver-McLeod County border to Cedar Mills in Meeker County;

  • $550,000 to acquire land and develop the Mill Towns Trail segment from Faribault to Dundas;

  • $2,500,000 to develop the Minnesota Valley Trail from the Bloomington Ferry Bridge to the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Bloomington; and

  • $1,000,000 to acquire land and develop approximately 11 miles of the Shooting Star Trail from Rose Creek to Austin.

  • $3,000,000 to the DNR for matching grants.

  • $8,700,000 to the DNR to develop recreational opportunities to meet the needs of key markets, to complete a new state-of-the-art campground at Whitewater, to provide sanitary facilities that meet the needs of people of all abilities, to purchase key in-holdings, and to develop two new public water accesses at Lake Waconia and the Mississippi River in Hennepin County.

  • To provide the money appropriated in this section the commissioner of management and budget shall sell and issue bonds of the state in an amount up to $32,650,000.

    And if you do think we need to spend $32.65 million on these projects, do you think we ought to borrow money to pay for it?  I don't think so.

     

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