Shooting Star Trail supporters disappointed again

Published 6:52 am Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Members of the Prairie Visions organization left Tuesday’s county board meeting feeling disappointed again over the lagging attention to extending the Shooting Star recreation trail.

The commissions approved a new maintenance and operation agreement with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for two stretches of the recreation trail from Taopi to Adams and Adams to Rose Creek, but nothing else.

According to the county coordinator, the DNR must now give its approval to the agreements on the trail segments before bids can be collected to construct the trail segments.

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The county has money for the Taopi to Adams segment of the trail and officials believe there will be enough left over from that segment’s construction to construct a hard-surface extension from Adams to Rose Creek.

Volunteers from the Prairie Vision organization formed a committee to develop the Shooting Star trail from the city of LeRoy across Mower County to Austin.

Property owners between Taopi and Adams objected to selling their land for the trail’s development and took Mower County to district court and later the state Court of Appeals. The dissidents lost at both court levels.

The county is the owner of the trail, but the DNR takes care of all maintenance needs.