Fact Sheet on Rails To Trails
1. 98% of taxpayers pay for trails used by 2% of the population.
2. Whether "grants", "stewardships", or ISTEA funds. It is still tax dollars at the Federal and State levels that fund those trails.
3. Wisconsin has more miles of trails than anoy other state in the Union, but usage often decreases after a few years of operation.
Example: Mountain Bay Trail
| January through August 1997 | 900 ($3 passes) | $2,790 |
| 756 ($10 passes) | $7,560 | |
|
Total |
$10,350 |
| January through August 1998 | 602 ($3 passes) | $1,806 |
| 558 ($10 passes) | $5,580 | |
|
Total |
$7,386 |
4. Most rail corridors are on private property. In the case of the proposed Fox River Trial, 80% of the easements are on private property.
5. Brown County government continues to refer to the rail corridor as "railroad property", ignoring private property ownership, and withholding police protection in the matter of trespassing.
6. Our legal action is currently against the railroad. Due to the numerous and continuing procedural errors, this corridor does not qualify for "rails-to-trails" conversion.
7. The ongoing planning and development by the Brown County government for the proposed Fox River Trail is premature -- this corridor will not become a trail until the courts have made a final decision.
8. While negotiations between the railroad and the State of Wisconsin have been going on now for several years, no money has changed hands, and no agency has approved the trail proposal. It is not a trail, and people are using it as such are trespassing, even though Brown County law enforcement refuses to enforce trespass statutes.