Trails in the News - Press Clipping Files

05/18/2007

Wheelway a Weave of Ownership, Maintenance Responsibilities

Wheelway a complex weave of jurisdictions

By Ryan Bentley News-Review Staff Writer

It’s a vision that’s taking many resources to fulfill.

And as the Little Traverse Wheelway becomes a reality, keeping the paved trail usable demands continued attention.

Since the 1970s, public- and private-sector advocates have worked together to arrange the recreation trail around Little Traverse Bay. To date, millions of dollars from several levels of government have been invested to develop the path used by bicyclists, joggers, walkers and inline skaters.

Along the route between Charlevoix and Harbor Springs, trail maintenance is a task that’s handled by multiple governments and private organizations. In some areas, the pathway is cleaned and the grass along it cut weekly during the warm season. In others, routine upkeep occurs every few weeks.

While appreciative of the maintenance that’s performed, some trail advocates believe more intergovernmental cooperation could help keep the entire trail in consistently good condition.

And some of the path’s users believe there are areas where upkeep could stand to improve.

Dividing the workload

State and federal grant funds administered through Michigan’s departments of transportation, natural resources and environmental quality have covered the large majority of construction costs along the Wheelway, which currently spans about 25 miles.

In supplying these funds, state officials typically have required a local government or organization to take on maintenance responsibilities.

Between Charlevoix and Bay Shore, those responsibilities rest with Charlevoix County. In recent years, Doug Way and others from his business, Way Transportation/Northern Michigan Dust Control, have handled routine maintenance for the county.

Way said his crew fans out along the trail about four times a year, mowing grass alongside the path and clearing brush as needed.

Until this year, Way has provided the upkeep at no charge to the county. But given the time demands and the rising cost of fuel, he recently arranged to have county officials pay his business $400 per trail visit.

Between Bay Shore and Bay View, Petoskey city staff are charged with the trail’s upkeep. They currently cover about 7.5 miles of trail, and plan to maintain a future 1.2-mile trail segment which will fill a mile gap between Bay Harbor and Magnus Park.

Petoskey parks and recreation director Al Hansen said city employees mow alongside the trail at least once every other week, and weekly in many cases.

When handling the mowing duties, the parks and recreation crew also uses a cart-mounted blower to remove debris from the trail surface, and performs edging along the path as well.

East of Petoskey’s city limits, the Bay View Association maintains the trail as it passes through its grounds.

Rod Slocum, the association’s executive director, said sweeping of the trail surface and cutting of the grass along it is handled as part of the summer community’s regular grounds maintenance schedule.

“We keep our corridor clean,” he said. “I tell my staff ‘That’s our front door, so make it sparkle.’”

Work along Bay View’s 0.75-mile Wheelway segment — most of which follows a sidewalk along U.S. 31 — typically begins in late April or early May and continues until snow arrives, Slocum said.

From Bay View’s eastern boundary to a curve in the trail at M-119 — a distance of 1.4 miles — the Little Traverse Bay Kiwanis Club’s members tend to the Wheelway’s upkeep.

Hansen, who’s also involved in Kiwanis, said club members pick up refuse along the trail once a week on a seasonal basis. Every other week or so, members bring out their personal lawn equipment to tend to mowing, edging and debris removal.

Emmet County has maintenance responsibilities along three miles or so of the Wheelway as it runs parallel to M-119 toward the trail’s terminus at Pleasantview Road.

County parks and recreation staff and maintenance employees make several visits a year to the trail for maintenance. Guiding a sweeper down the pathway is a key part of the maintenance program.

“We do that a couple, three times a year, plus (more) if there’s a major rainstorm,” county controller Lyn Johnson said. “A lot of it’s sand removal, debris removal, leaves, that sort of thing.”

County staff don’t cut grass along that part of the trail, Johnson said, though the Emmet County Road Commission often mows the right-of-way between the trail and highway as part of its maintenance program.

Challenges to upkeep

Burt Lake resident John Mange, who often inline skates on the Wheelway segment along M-119, has taken note of debris that tends to accumulate on the path’s surface and vegetation encroaching along the trail’s edges.

“The fear of falling (while skating), is great enough without having additional challenges to deal with such as dirt and debris,” Mange said. “Each year the trails get narrower and narrower.”

Noting the county’s agreement to perform maintenance, Mange said “if people promise something, they should do it with pride and exhilaration, respecting the well-being of the users.”

Johnson said the trail’s configuration in that area — it’s often lower than surrounding terrain, and prone to dirt splashing over from the nearby highway — makes it vulnerable to these types of issues.

“It wasn’t really engineered to handle the extent of the drainage issues,” he said. “We try to maintain proper drainage, but there are areas where there are serious problems and you’re talking serious dollars to get those corrected.”

The county recently secured a $25,000 grant from the Local Revenue Sharing Board — which distributes a small share of Victories Casino revenues to fund community projects — to help in addressing Wheelway maintenance issues, Johnson said. The county board of commissioners has agreed to provide an additional $25,000 toward such needs.

County officials are still deciding which maintenance issues should be given the highest priority when the $50,000 is put to use, the controller said.

Another inline skater, Lindy Bearss of Bay Shore, noted that imperfections in a trail surface can be especially troublesome when skating. During her frequent skating trips on the Wheelway near Bay Harbor, Bearss said she’s had to watch out for bumps caused by roots growing through the trail surface.

Last October, Bearss hit a bump in the trail that was caused by one of these root growths. She fell, fracturing a shoulder, and has since undergone two surgeries to address her injury.

If the trail is to be made available for inline skating, Bearss believes the responsible parties need to step up their maintenance efforts.

“I just feel really sad that they have not kept those paths in good condition,” she said. “I wouldn’t mind even paying a user fee ... if it meant being able to safely roller blade.”

Hansen said the city repaved several sections of trail near Bay Harbor in recent years to address root damage. When the repairs were made, fabric barriers were placed in the ground alongside the trail to control root penetration. The city’s still evaluating their effectiveness, Hansen added.

In other areas where roots break through the pavement, Hansen said city staff try to address the damage using heat treatments. But he noted that damage from poplar roots presents an ongoing challenge.

“Asphalt’s the perfect growing medium, believe it or not,” Hansen said, noting that the pavement traps heat and moisture below.

Ideas for improvement

Top of Michigan Trails Council board member Max Putters said the parties responsible for trail maintenance “are stepping up and doing their share or more than their share.”

But with issues like vegetation encroachment and premature pavement breakup affecting some parts of the trail, Putters believes it might be helpful for area governments to take a more unified approach to those maintenance needs. Getting township governments along the trail involved alongside current contributors might help in the process, he added.

“If they could contribute a small amount to a trail maintenance fund every year, together we could probably put together a nice little pot to make the repairs,” Putters said.

Nancy Krupiarz, executive director of the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, said coordination can help in ensuring proper maintenance along regional trails. But as with the Wheelway, she said multiple agencies tend to divide upkeep responsibilities in many of the trail systems around Michigan.

“It’s really a patchwork of getting the job done,” she said. “There’s never really a lot of money to do it, and it takes a lot of coordination to get the job done right.”

Krupiarz pointed to the Paint Creek Trail in Oakland County as one example of effective coordination in trail maintenance and upkeep.

This trail passes through Rochester, Rochester Hills and Orion and Oakland townships. Each of these communities has delegates serving on the Paint Creek Trail Commission. Using equal contributions from all four participating governments, this body handles operating needs such as staffing and patrols along the limestone-surfaced path. The commission also determines maintenance needs for the trail, with each community funding the upkeep based on their respective trail mileage.

Centralizing maintenance responsibilities within one agency can also be an effective strategy for keeping up longer trails, Krupiarz said. For example, she said Midland County has been effective in maintaining the Midland area’s Pere Marquette Trail. An endowment maintained by the local community foundation — and supported by area charities and community members — has helped in covering maintenance costs.

Emily Meyerson, a Petoskey consultant assisting TOMTC with trail planning and implementation, also has taken note of other communities’ efforts to coordinate trail maintenance.

Though Meyerson believes some portions of the Wheelway already are very well kept, she’d like to see more consistent upkeep along the entire Wheelway in order to ensure its longevity.

“People are coming from all around the state to ride this trail,” she said.

Mange believes a volunteer organization to supplement trail maintenance efforts might be helpful.

“I think the (Top of Michigan Trails Council) should enlist people,” he said. “It’s their baby.”

Fred Fettis, a trails council board member, said the organization tries to promote good maintenance along the Wheelway, though it primarily advocates trail development around Northern Michigan. Enlisting groups of trail users, like bicyclists, to help with routine upkeep might be one way to enhance the upkeep, he noted.

Trail links

Supporters of the Little Traverse Wheelway are hopeful that two new links can be created in the paved trail during 2008.

Petoskey Department of Parks and Recreation Director Al Hansen said the Michigan Department of Transportation already has authorized funding for construction of a trail segment to link Petoskey’s Magnus Park and Resort Township’s East Park near Bay Harbor. Some $1.1 million — made up largely of federal transportation funds administered through MDOT — is expected to be provided.

Northwest Design Group of Petoskey currently is handling engineering preparations for the trail on the city’s behalf. Once the engineering is complete, the state will need to inspect the plans.

Tentatively, Hansen said local officials plan to seek bids for trail construction this winter and to begin construction in 2008.

“Our intent would be to have it completed by the fall (of 2008), he said.

Petoskey will cover the trail’s engineering costs, which are not to exceed $190,000, and will need to provide about $200,000 more toward construction as a match for the MDOT grant.

Emmet County has paid for land acquisition and easements along the proposed route for the trail, city manager George Korthauer said, with Resort Township designating some funds for the project as well.

Across Little Traverse Bay, the Harbor Area Regional Board of Resources (HARBOR Inc.) has been helping coordinate arrangements for an extension of the Wheelway from its current terminus at Pleasantview Road to the eastern outskirts of Harbor Springs.

Danna Widmar, executive director of the HARBOR Inc. regional planning organization, expects construction of this segment — which would lie within a few feet of M-119 for much of its three-mile length — to take place in 2008 as well.

MDOT has agreed to provide nearly $1 million to cover the trail’s engineering and construction, Widmar said. The engineering work — expected to start this summer — will need to be successfully completed in order for the construction funding to be awarded.

Harbor Springs and Little Traverse Township officials have been helpful in making the trail arrangements, Widmar said.

Plans call for the path to end with a trailhead near the corner of Lake and Hoyt streets in Harbor Springs.

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