News

Commissioners express tepid support for rail trail

By Bill Moss, Published: March 10, 2015

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners expressed lukewarm support for the Ecusta Trail last week and raised the possibility of holding a countywide referendum on the 20-mile greenway.

Commissioner Michael Edney wanted the board to endorse the trail in concept and earmark $25,000 a year for future construction costs. Instead of a green light, commissioners offered half-hearted support in caution yellow.
"There is an awful lot of information that we don't have on Ecusta Trail," Commissioner Grady Hawkins said Monday during the board's deliberations on 2015-16 budget priorities. The county should defer to Watco, the railroad owner, and it should heed the position of the Transylvania County Board of Commissioners, which opposes railbanking of the line.
"The Ecusta Trial is not a niche product," Hawkins said. When he called the official in charge of the Swamp Rabbit Trail in the Upstate of South Carolina, he said, he learned about extra costs.
"He indicated that the sheriff had to add three dedicated officers for the county and he went on to give some of the cost estimates," he said. "Basically the trail is about a three month out of the year enterprise down there. That said, you're really looking at a multi-million dollar project to hook the city of Hendersonville up to Transylvania County. It's worth some further scrutiny to see what's involved."
If the county is to decide, Hawkins said it ought to be by a countywide referendum.
"It would be great for the folks that are pushing this to come up with a hard cost and give us the opportunity to put it on the ballot," he said. "Right now you're looking in my opinion at a pig in the poke. I think our best move on that would be to try to continue to collect data and give people an opportunity to vote on whether they want to spend that kind of money or not."
The cost, Edney responded, would not be borne entirely by Henderson County.
"It's a multi-million-dollar project but it's not a multi-million-dollar project for Henderson County," Edney said. "Henderson County would be one of 10, 15 players in it. What I would like to do is continue the study and really not do much until Watco decides it's an option for them."
The board voted to endorse the trail in concept if research showed that it was feasible. Edney dropped his request to add $25,000 a year in funding.