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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2017)
14 community january19 2017 Plans for Salmonberry Trail Trail so far. They initially studied other lengthy trails within the United States to ascertain the best way for multiple agen- cies and jurisdictions to govern this type of trail and then made a recommendation on their findings. They then helped broker the for- mation of an Intergovernmental Agree- ment (IGA) establishing the Salmon- berry Trail Intergovernmental Agency and a Board of Directors to collabora- tively plan and implement the develop- ment of the trail. “Remember, we’re all about cross sector collaborations,” says Johnson. The IGA includes Tillamook County, the Port of Tillamook Bay, Oregon State Parks and Oregon Department of Forestry; the head of each of these entities is one of the Board of Directors. They added other Board member positions to include the State Senator from District 16 (Senator John- son), the State Representative from District 32 (Representa- tive Debbie Boone), and the Regional Solutions Team North Coast Coordinator, as well as an appointee from Washington County, the Tillamook Forest Heritage Trust, and the Wash- ington County Visitors Associa- tion. Oregon Solutions also helped create a Trail Owner- ship Work Group designed to resolve questions about trail ownership and the use of the property that belongs to the Port, since the Port of Tillamook Bay is not interested in operating a trail sys- tem on their right-of-way. Johnson says those questions are still being worked out, especially in the coastal areas the trail traverses, where meetings are still being held on this topic. Johnson says that on the eastern end of the trail, the Valley Segment, the right-of-way for the Salmonberry Cor- ridor runs from Banks, adjacent to the right-of-way for the Banks-Vernonia Trail for several miles, and then heads west in Manning. “What is likely to happen is the trails will be co-terminus at least to Manning, but maybe even up into Stub Stewart State Park,” says John- son. Johnson notes that there are dis- cussions for an additional catalyst proj- continued from page 3 ect to create a short loop using the Salm- onberry right-of-way through Buxton that would connect Stub Stewart with the Manning trailhead on the Banks- Vernonia Trail. Johnson also says there is interest by both the City of Banks and the Intergovernmental Agency for a project to expand the trailhead in Banks. “If you’re familiar with that trailhead at all, you know that it is very crowded, especially in the summer months,” says Johnson. “This could have very positive benefits for Vernonia as well. Those two projects could happen fairly quickly, like forest and rejoins the right-of-way at a later point,” says Johnson. “So there is lots of detailed planning of how that trail will work because there is so much of it that is damaged or too dangerous to al- low people on it.” Starting in the Nehalem Seg- ment and extending south to the Coastal Segment there is an opportunity for a “Rails-With-Trails” development, that would have a trail run adjacent to the ex- isting rail line. The rail line is currently being used by an excursion steam and diesel-powered train from Garibaldi to This is an example of some of the damage to the rail line in the Salmonberry River Canyon from the 2007 flood. within the next five years.” While development on the Val- ley Segment may happen relatively soon, development of the damaged Salmonber- ry Segment will be more difficult. It in- cludes numerous bridges and trestles, 16 of which have been identified by FEMA as needing major repairs, along with a tunnel that also needs major repairs. There are also many landslides and em- bankment failures through this section that need to be repaired. Estimated costs in the Concept Plan to re-establish rail transport totaled $25 million; costs to convert the rail line to a multi-use trail would not be as high. “We might need to work with the State Department of For- estry to possibly go off the right-of-way to create a new trail that goes through the Rockaway Beach. There is also interest in expanding this sight-seeing line fur- ther north along the coast. There is also the possibility to develop a more simple hiking/adventure trail through the coast range and the Tillamook State Forest. Johnson says the initial Con- cept Plan has been an excellent start and work is nearing completion on a more detailed engineering plan that will allow more accurate construction estimates for repairs and will present recommenda- tions for routes and alignments both in and out of the right-of-way. Development of the trail still has numerous issues to sort out. “One of the difficulties is that we’ve lost a couple of key leaders on this project,” says Sena- tor Johnson. “[Former Columbia Coun- ty Commissioner] Tony Hyde’s long re- lationship with trails and his seeing the value of these trails way ahead of other people, will be missed. He was a cham- pion of the Banks-Vernonia Trail and certainly the champion of the C-Z Trail. And [former County Commissioner] Mark Labhart has retired in Tillamook. Filling those two key county leadership roles with people who share the enthusi- asm and see the vision is going to be one of our short term challenges.” As Senator Johnson notes, issues to be addressed include the actual route alignment of the trail along with other engineering and design concerns, like whether to pave the trail or not, and how it in- teracts within the boundaries of municipalities along the coast; public safety concerns with the development of trail in such a wild and inaccessible area like the Salmonberry Canyon; con- cerns raised by neighbors with property adjacent to the trail (always an issue when new trail development projects are pro- posed); and last, but certainly not least, funding. “It will undoubtedly be built in phases as money becomes available,” says Senator Johnson. “The state obviously has budget issues and I can’t see us putting in a giant amount of public money when we’re still struggling and trying to get the economy right in so many parts of Oregon, the least of which is rural Oregon. One could argue that this is an opportunity to make an investment with a recreational/tourist payoff, but I would submit that until we get some of our bigger problems solved this will probably not be ripe for a huge public investment.” “We have to look at all the opportunities that come with the development of a trail like this,” says Senator Johnson. “Someone riding a $3,000 bicycle doesn’t want to stay at Motel 6 when they reach the end of the trail. There are all kinds of complimentary ideas hatching that would support the trail. This remains a work in progress and a type of visionary notion of what could help drive a recreation economy in this region.” Church Directory Assembly of God Sunday School: 9:45 am Morning Worship: 11:00 am Sunday Evening Prayer: 6:00 pm Wayne Marr, Pastor 662 Jefferson Avenue 503-429-0373 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Sunday Schedule: Sacrament Meeting: 10:00 am Sunday School & Primary: 11:20 am Relief Society, Priesthood and Young Women: 12:10 pm Roger Cook, Branch President 1350 E. Knott Street 503-429-7151 Grace Family Fellowship Sunday School: 9:00 am Worship Service: 10:30 am Thursday Prayer: 6:00 pm Greg “Mac” McCallum, Pastor 957 State Avenue 503-429-6790 Nehalem Valley Bible Church Sunday School: 9:45 am Worship Service: 10:45 am Tues. Ladies Bible Study: 9:30 am Wednesday Service: 7:00 pm Sat. Men’s Prayer Meeting: 6:30 am Gary Taylor, Pastor Grant & North Streets 503-429-5378 Open Door Gathering Place Service: Sunday 6:00 pm Grant Williams, Pastor 375 North Street 503-702-3553 St. Mary’s Catholic Church Wednesday Religious Education: 3:15-4:30 pm Sunday Mass: 12:00 pm Rev. Luan Tran, Administrator 960 Missouri Avenue 503-429-8841 Vernonia Christian Church Sunday School: 9:45 am Worship Service in Youth & Family Center: 11:00 AM www.VernoniaChristianChurch.org Sam Hough, Pastor 410 North Street 503-429-6522 Vernonia Foursquare Church Sunday Worship Service: 10:30 am Children’s Sunday School Carl Pense, Pastor 850 Madison Avenue 503-429-1103 Vernonia Seventh-day Adventist Church Sabbath (Saturday) Services Sabbath School: 9:30 am Worship Service: 11:00 am www.VernoniaSDAC.org Larry Gibson, Pastor 2nd Ave. and Nehalem St. 503-429-8301