MOUNT JEWETT — While reports last month from the McKean County Planning Commission implied the multi-use trail to be built between Mount Jewett and Kinzua Bridge State Park on the former Knox-Kane rail corridor is a no-go, members of the MJ2KB Trail Club think otherwise.
It was earlier reported that if the $1 million grant was to be awarded through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s Transportation Alternative Program to purchase the 73-mile corridor, the entire corridor would have to be developed within 10 years or the county would have to pay the entire grant back.
That was a risk the planning commission did not want to take, according to the report.
McKean County planning director Jeremy Morey said when the original grant was written, PennDOT would allow for the grant to be used for acquisition without development. However, Morey said that has now changed.
Headwaters Charitable Trust of DuBois is seeking the grant money to acquire and develop the abandoned rail corridor which runs from Clarion to Kinzua Bridge State Park near Mount Jewett. However, Morey said since his predecessor, Ken Baldwin, wrote the initial grant, McKean County would be on the hook to pay back the $1 million if the entire project does not come to fruition.
The county would have to also have the trail built to PennDOT standards at a cost of $200,000 per mile, according to Morey.
The planning commission is looking into using the $1 million for other trails within McKean County, Morey said.
Karen Sees of the MJ2KB Trail Club addressed the issue at Mount Jewett’s August borough council meeting on Monday, describing the reports that the trail and light rail as a dead issue as inaccurate. Sees said while the section of the corridor which runs through Mount Jewett and Hamlin Township is in the process of being railbanked, that process is not yet complete.
Sees said reports about not being able to have light rail on railbanked tracks adjacent to a trail due to liability concerns may also not be entirely true.
Sees said New Bethlehem-based specialty insurance carrier McRail does not appear to be concerned with light rail traffic. She said light rail, specifically rail maintenance vehicles known as “speeders,” was the primary idea behind saving the rails on that section of the corridor.
Sees thinks with the trail and light rail being next to the active B&O railroad track on Center Street in Mount Jewett, the liability would be the about the same whether the rails are still in place or not. Any use of a tourist train between the borough and state park would be “years in the future,” said Sees.
Trail club organizer Carolyn Stroup said the possibility of running the speeders on the tracks may exist as long as the light rail is not used for commercial use. Stroup has heard of groups in other parts of the state using railbanked corridors for light rail. She acknowledged the group needs to speak to an attorney first to verify this claim.
However, Morey said the light rail on the final 3.9-mile section of the corridor cannot happen. He said the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation Board has officially approved the abandonment of the section of track on July 24, making the possibility of light rail traffic virtually impossible.
Tim Garrity of the MJ2KB Trail Club, along with Sees and Stroup, will make a presentation to the McKean County Planning Commission at the board’s August meeting. Morey is looking forward to seeing what the group has to say. He welcomes any grassroots support he can get.
The planning commission’s meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at the McKean County 911 Center in Smethport.
