Decision on route of controversial recreation trail delayed to May 6

LINCOLN — A decision on the preferred route for a recreation trail across Cass County is going extra innings.

The Cass County Board, which had initially intended to take up the controversial route decision at its meeting on Tuesday, has now delayed that discussion to its next meeting, on May 6, at the courthouse in Plattsmouth.

The Cass County trail would realize a long-time dream of establishing a contiguous hike-bike trail from Omaha to Lincoln. Trails now end in Cass County at the unincorporated village of Wabash and just south of the Platte River near a bridge across the river at South Bend. It leaves about an eight-mile gap.

A several months-long routing study done on behalf of the Lower Platte Natural Resources District had recommended a route that roughly follows 334th Street, a little-traveled, north-south, gravel road. And the Cass County Board had voted 3-2 to OK that route on Nov. 5.

But county commissioners, including two new board members elected later in November, reversed course last month, voting 4-1 to reconsider the earlier decision, and reopen talks with the NRD about the best route.

Cass County Board member Dan Stohlmann, who was elected in November, said Tuesday that all four routes initially considered are being revisited.

“There’s issues with each of them,” Stohlmann said.

Both he and fellow board member, Alex DeGarmo, told the Nebraska Examiner they remain optimistic that a route can be worked out.

While Cass County is not contributing financially to the project, its right of way — along gravel roads — would be used to build a connector, so it has a big say on the route. The existing trails used abandoned railroad right of way, while the connector would be built in road ditches, requiring stabilizing walls and drainage pipes.

The latest flap over a connector trail across Cass County follows a similar spat in 2009. That’s when a proposed route for the trail was shot down by landowners who objected to a trail crossing in front of their homes.

The current proposal got a boost in 2022 when the Nebraska Legislature allocated $8.3 million toward building the connector trail. The route chosen most recently, however, has an estimated price tag of more than $15 million.

Advocates for the trail maintain that the $15 million estimate is highly inflated and that actual construction costs could be reduced and that private donations would cover any gap.

Detractors of the trail express worries about safety around farm equipment and doubt that the trail would bring increased economic activity to Cass County.