Photo courtesy Bruce Sassmann.
by Don Corrigan
The Rock Island Trail proposal took a hit this month when Republican gubernatorial candidates Mike Kehoe and Jay Ashcroft announced they have serious doubts about the cross-state project.
This comes less than three weeks after Environmental Echo (EE) noted Republican Gov. Mike Parson’s support of the project as a significant tourism magnet for the state. EE cited the trail as a bright spot in 2024 for state nature lovers.
Kehoe and Ashcroft are running to replace Parson in 2024 as he is retiring. Leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate Crystal Quaid had indicated that she supports the trail as an economic boon to the state.
The Rock Island Trail is a proposed 144-mile-long corridor stretching across Missouri from Kansas City to the Ozarks, using a former rail bed obtained by the state in 2021.
In 2023, Governor Mike Parson included $77 million in the budget for fiscal year 2023 to begin construction on over 70 miles of the trail, from Eugene to Beaufort. The trail is an essential piece as a link for the Katy Trail to get the Kansas City area.
The funding was ultimately cut from the final budget by the Senate, but the pressure has been building for the legislature to act on this valuable resource that can enhance state tourism and improve the health and welfare of its citizens with more recreation.
There were strong indications that Missouri citizens, who enjoy their Katy Trail, would succeed in being heard in 2024 on the Rock Island Trail proposal. With gubernatorial candidates backing off, that success is in doubt.
The trail proposal also is facing headwinds as State Sen. Lincoln Hough of Springfield, chair of the Appropriations Committee in Jefferson City, has declared his opposition to the project.
Missouri recreational groups contend Hough is receiving campaign money from a few families bitterly opposed to the trail, and that is influencing his decision-making.
Missouri legislators who favor the proposed trail said they will work to find out why the trail is being opposed, and how the plan might be amended to answer objections by gubernatorial candidates and Hough.
Environmental Echo 
It is sad to see once again that many legislators and other GOP politicians who claim to care about rural Missourians are instead blocking a project that can benefit the economies of many small towns — this time from Union, Gerald, and Beaufort to Pleasant Hill and Lee’s Summit ( and many in between). These politicians certainly are not listening to the majority of the residents of these communities, even as they once again show no interest in improving the recreational opportunities for Missourians or for others out of state who would bring their tourist dollars here.
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