Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 8, 1995 TAG: 9503080064
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Plans were to complete the trail at once when the project received a $453,000 state grant in October 1993. Yet bureaucratic snafus, environmental regulations and increased construction costs have delayed the start.
People Advocating the Huckleberry voted Monday to seek state approval to begin building the northern half of the trail, from its present terminus in Blacksburg to Merrimac Road.
The northern section was designated a top priority because it has been less ensnared by environmental regulations than the southern half between Merrimac and the New River Valley Mall.
PATH members, eager to take advantage of the onset of warmer weather, backed the new approach without assurance that the state would allow construction to proceed.
"The bureaucrats in Richmond are holding us up. But we're ready to go," said Bill Ellenbogen, head of Friends of the Huckleberry.
The trail's long-delayed environmental document hit a new snag in January when the state Department of Historic Resources rejected a report on historical and cultural resources along the planned trail's path, which generally follows an abandoned railroad bed.
More documentation on avoiding potential archeological sites was needed, the department said.
Providing that information has been time-consuming and more expensive, trail supporters said. But trail construction cannot proceed until the Department of Historic Resources gives its approval.
Delays and additional expenses have prompted PATH to seek another state grant of about $300,000, which the organization says will be necessary to complete the Huckleberry Trail. The state says it will decide on the new grant in June.
Meanwhile, the original grant money is tied up pending governmental agency approval of project plans. PATH members reiterated their dissatisfaction Monday with what many see as a Catch-22.
Because of higher construction costs and inflation, "The longer we wait, the less our money is worth," said Adele Schirmer. "That's the frustrating thing."
"Interest by the public is shrinking, too," Ellenbogen said.
People are starting to forget about the proposed trail or lose confidence that it will ever be built, which is bad for fund-raising, he added.
Better to try and build the trail in sequence than wait for the state's final approach of the entire project, said Lance Terpenny. "Certainly some is better than none."
However, agencies such as the Department of Historic Resources or the Virginia Department of Transportation may not be willing to give partial approval, committee members acknowledged.
Also, Virginia Tech has not lent its approval to part of the trail's northern section that crosses the university's agricultural lands.
PATH members decided to move ahead anyway. "We're been waiting for a year and a half. The process has gotten really ridiculous," Ellenbogen said.
"If this isn't a case of government not working effectively, I don't know what is," he added.
by CNB