The Rural Voice, 1989-05, Page 35Farmers have been very vocal in
pointing out the many potential
hazards of giving people access to
their property as well as the added
costs of maintaining road crossings
and installing drainage systems where
they intersect the lines. Each boring
of a municipal drain under the railway
bed carries a $10,000 price tag,
according to Tom Cunningham, reeve
of Huron County's Hullett Township.
Many are wondering who will pay
for weed control along these strips of
land so that unwanted plants will not
spread to adjacent cropland. Good
fences, essential to keeping good
neighbours, will have to be maintained
and may still not be enough to keep
trail users on the straight and narrow,
according to nervous landowners.
Gary Nelson of Ariss has said that
people are already using rail lines to
remove property from his farm. Last
Christmas they removed a 30 -foot
pine tree just to use the few feet at the
top for a Christmas tree. "This will
compound the problems we have had
with CPR over the years," he predicts.
In many cases, the rail line does
not pass along the back of farm prop-
erty but through the backyards of rural
home owners. They are objecting to
the invasion of privacy, the opportuni-
ty for hikers or bikers virtually to stare
through their kitchen windows.
The loss of privacy was identified
by Jeanne Kirkby of Walton as the
biggest single concern among land-
owners. She is the secretary -treasurer
of the United Groundhog Day Com-
mittee of Huron County, a committee
named for the day it was formed.
Kirkby claims that the committee
has the support of 100 per cent of the
landowners adjacent to the line in
Huron and lacks only one name in
Grey County to make it unanimous
there. They have made a presentation
to County Council objecting to the
trails concept and have met with
government officials to arrange a
presentation at Queen's Park in June.
Related to the privacy problem is
the open door to the homes of absent
landowners that the line would offer
the criminal element, as well as the
chance to rob other trail users in the
more remote sections of the line, far
from patrolling police officers.
Pressure from urban people (who
would likely form a large percentage
of the trail users) to have discontinued
farming practices they find offensive
such as spreading manure is already a
concern among farmers. Hikers
walking through the back 40 in late
fall might increase the number of
urban people looking down upturned
noses in a disapproving manner.
Tourist dollars mean jobs,
something politicians keep
in mind when making any
decisions .. .
Critics also say that liability in
cases of accidental injury could add
considerable costs to the already
expensive exercise of maintaining
trails in an attempt to avoid accidents,
especially on some rather high and
narrow railways bridges on the line.
At the very least, these bridges would
have to be planked and side railings
would have to be installed so people
could cross them safely.
And there is the question of where
to park cars while owners are out
walking.
A steering committee of trail sup-
porters has so far kept one step ahead
of the groundhog group by holding a
meeting with a special interministerial
committee of 12 government depart-
ments formed by the province to gath-
er information on this complex issue.
That meeting provided only informa-
tion for government representatives,
without any commitment on their part,
says Joan Van Den Broeck of Saltford,
Huron Tract Rails to Trails Associa-
tion steering committee member.
The group's first choice would be
to have the provincial government
take on the project, but failing that
they have proposed a joint effort, with
the trail association forming a board of
directors to do the bulk of the work
under an agreement with the provin-
cial conservation authorities.
"There are a lot of concerns that
will have to be addressed," admits
Van Den Broeck, but she adds that the
benefits make the inevitable struggle
facing her group worthwhile.
Van Den Broeck points to the
success of similar undertakings in the
U.S., where the rails to trails move -
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