Kansas bill threatens trails; please contact legislators

The following message is from Dale Crawford, advocacy chair of the
Johnson County (Kansas) Bicycle Club.

A bill, HB2583, that would have a very bad effect on Kansas trails,
including mountain biking trails and rails-to-trails projects, is
working its way through the Kansas legislature. More about the bill &
its negative effects is he

http://mobikefed.org/2004_02_01_advo...890675 108864

The bill could come to a vote as soon as today (27 Feb) or Monday (1
March 2004).

If you know anyone who lives in or near Kansas, please forward this
along to them. But I think it helps a lot to have out-of-state people
write, too. Negative national attention is a pretty strong force . .
..

--Brent
bhugh [at] mwsc.edu

--begin forwarded message----------------

It is URGENT you contact Kansas legislators TODAY (27 Feb 2004), if at
all possible as tomorrow may be to late. This bill has moved faster
than a strong August wind through committee, has been debated on the
House floor and is expected to be voted on today or Monday at the
latest. The Farm Bureau and Kansas Livestock Association are lobbying
hard to push it through fast to bring a permanent end to rail trail
development in Kansas.

Below is:
- a link to all Kansas legislators -
http://www.kslegislature.org/houseroster/index.html

- a link to find out who your House Representative is if you do not
know.
http://www.kslegislature.org/redistricting.html

- A sample letter you can paste into your email. Just fill in your
city on the first line.

Please take these few minutes to save the future of rail-trails in KS.
My apology if you get more than one copy of this URGENT email.

Dale Crawford
JCBC Advocacy Chair
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------

Please vote no on House Bill No. 2583, related to recreational trails
rail-banked corridors. I am a voting bicyclists and recreation trail
user from YOUR CITY HERE. I support the efforts of not-for-profit
organizations, such as the Kanza Rail Trail Conservancy, Inc., who
have the development rights for the Flint Hills Nature Trail, a
105-mile trail from Osawatomie to Herrington, KS, and the 55-mile
Landon Nature Trail, a north from near Pomona north to Topeka. Since
September 2001 significant progress has been made by KRTC member
volunteers on targeted segments of those two trails as well as by
other organizations on only a few other corridors in Kansas.
Hopefully those efforts can continue, unhampered by the onerous
provisions of House Bill No. 2583 and can be expanded to include other
corridors throughout the state. All of these volunteers have not
received compensation and are motivated solely by trying to provide
recreational and economic development benefits through the rural areas
for future generations of Kansans.

Our goal is to create something like the KATY trail in Missouri that
will benefit all of Kansas, and particularly the rural areas through
which the trail runs that potentially could benefit from the economic
development that follows such developed trails. House Bill No. 2583,
if it becomes law, will have a chilling effect on the development of
existing rail-banked corridors, and will deter future organizations or
governmental entities from undertaking the development of additional
recreational trails within Kansas, to the detriment of all Kansans. I
am against House Bill No. 2583, and would encourage you to not approve
the bill as contrary to public policy of the State of Kansas. In
addition, House Bill No. 2583 is contrary to the public policy of the
federal law that allows rail-banked corridors to be used for interim
trail purposes.

Thank you for NO vote on HB 2583.

test, and yes I do live in the land of oz
"Brent Hugh" wrote in message
om...
The following message is from Dale Crawford, advocacy chair of the
Johnson County (Kansas) Bicycle Club.

A bill, HB2583, that would have a very bad effect on Kansas trails,
including mountain biking trails and rails-to-trails projects, is
working its way through the Kansas legislature. More about the bill &
its negative effects is he


http://mobikefed.org/2004_02_01_advo...890675 108864

The bill could come to a vote as soon as today (27 Feb) or Monday (1
March 2004).

If you know anyone who lives in or near Kansas, please forward this
along to them. But I think it helps a lot to have out-of-state people
write, too. Negative national attention is a pretty strong force . .
.

--Brent
bhugh [at] mwsc.edu

--begin forwarded message----------------

It is URGENT you contact Kansas legislators TODAY (27 Feb 2004), if at
all possible as tomorrow may be to late. This bill has moved faster
than a strong August wind through committee, has been debated on the
House floor and is expected to be voted on today or Monday at the
latest. The Farm Bureau and Kansas Livestock Association are lobbying
hard to push it through fast to bring a permanent end to rail trail
development in Kansas.

Below is:
- a link to all Kansas legislators -
http://www.kslegislature.org/houseroster/index.html

- a link to find out who your House Representative is if you do not
know.
http://www.kslegislature.org/redistricting.html

- A sample letter you can paste into your email. Just fill in your
city on the first line.

Please take these few minutes to save the future of rail-trails in KS.
My apology if you get more than one copy of this URGENT email.

Dale Crawford
JCBC Advocacy Chair
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
----------------------------------------

Please vote no on House Bill No. 2583, related to recreational trails
rail-banked corridors. I am a voting bicyclists and recreation trail
user from YOUR CITY HERE. I support the efforts of not-for-profit
organizations, such as the Kanza Rail Trail Conservancy, Inc., who
have the development rights for the Flint Hills Nature Trail, a
105-mile trail from Osawatomie to Herrington, KS, and the 55-mile
Landon Nature Trail, a north from near Pomona north to Topeka. Since
September 2001 significant progress has been made by KRTC member
volunteers on targeted segments of those two trails as well as by
other organizations on only a few other corridors in Kansas.
Hopefully those efforts can continue, unhampered by the onerous
provisions of House Bill No. 2583 and can be expanded to include other
corridors throughout the state. All of these volunteers have not
received compensation and are motivated solely by trying to provide
recreational and economic development benefits through the rural areas
for future generations of Kansans.

Our goal is to create something like the KATY trail in Missouri that
will benefit all of Kansas, and particularly the rural areas through
which the trail runs that potentially could benefit from the economic
development that follows such developed trails. House Bill No. 2583,
if it becomes law, will have a chilling effect on the development of
existing rail-banked corridors, and will deter future organizations or
governmental entities from undertaking the development of additional
recreational trails within Kansas, to the detriment of all Kansans. I
am against House Bill No. 2583, and would encourage you to not approve
the bill as contrary to public policy of the State of Kansas. In
addition, House Bill No. 2583 is contrary to the public policy of the
federal law that allows rail-banked corridors to be used for interim
trail purposes.

Thank you for NO vote on HB 2583.