The Cole Camp City Council held a meeting Monday evening, August 12 to ask questions of Friends of the Rock Island Trail, MoDot and DNR. No citizens spoke at the meeting and two officials, one with Bartlett & West Engineering and the other with MoDot spoke via zoom.
Councilwoman Mindy Fox stated she had no questions. Steve Knox asked the Engineering firm, “$144,000, what are we engineering that cost that amount of money?” Bartlett & West spokesman replied, “$86,000 and $58,000 includes the site engineering and the other is construction engineering. Both are estimated prices for full design and full construction.”
Councilman Locke then questioned, “How did you get these figures?” The Engineer explained, “Materials, rock for the trail and again, they are estimated costs. We just want to be sure there was enough money estimated to cover the costs.”
Locke then asked, “If the completion is 2026, is there any inflation figured in this?” To which the Engineer responded they had tried to factor it in.
“$50,000, for mobilizations,” questioned Locke. “What is that?” The answer was simply, cash up front which is a standard item to move equipment.
Locke continued, “We paid $500 for this grant to be written so I want to know how many miles Cole Camp is involved in on this trail?” He was told the commitment is for the Trailhead and .77 miles. An additional mile can be bid on but it is an option and Cole Camp isn’t locked into that.
Locke then questioned, “The road leading into the proposed site is listed private. Is there an easement in the grant? “ Locke continued, “MoDot, is it legal to have donated time & labor of volunteers?” The answer was, “Federal does not like volunteers, needs to be on contract. But donated materials are easily approved.”
“If you use City Employees does the City have to pay prevailing wage? Is there a way to cap the time?” Response was Feds require 25 years. Next query was, “Who oversees it?” Response was the State Parks would attend to maintenance.
Councilman Crider asked, “Who has to have insurance?” Knox immediately questioned “Are we liable if they get hurt?” DNR spokesman responded, “Public land has same rules as State property. Same rules apply as your City Parks.”
Locke then asked, “MoDot, if we do not accept this grant, can we ever qualify for another grant?” He was told, “You are not disqualified but less eligible in the future.”
Knox inquired, “What is MoDot’s plan from Windsor to Cole Camp? Has anyone thought about the expense of getting across the streams?” DNR intervened and said, “We would be the entity to deal with that. The bridges are steel and just need new flooring but there is no timeline on all that.”
Locke posed the question to Bartlett & West if DNR have ways to pump bulk toilets? DNR responded, “I think we contract that out. I’m actually unprepared to answer that.”
Locke stated the original plan had the location in three different sites. First was Hi Lonesome and second was Nay and the third was Crest. DNR responded by saying they had considered Hi Lonesome because it is owned by the Missouri Dept of Conservation and the second choice was Nay but hadn’t considered it strongly because there was no property available until the offer of the donation came. He concluded, “We’ve always wanted Cole Camp to have access to this trail.”
Steve Knox then announced, “We have three farmers here tonight that have land on both sides, how do you handle that?” DNR stated, “We have a game plan with fencing so they can move cattle and equipment. We make sure they have a personal contact at DNR for each farmer. We take trespassing very seriously. We have trail cams that we can see and Rangers respond quickly. When the entire trail is completed the DNR will be responsible for the maintenance.”
One farmer stated: “I’ve talked to DNR and at first I opposed the trail but now I’m very much in favor of it.”
Steve Knox then asked,”Who is the working group?” JoAnn Lane, Benton County Economic Development Director spoke up and told him to refer to the workbook she had made for each Council member. She gave him the page and paragraph to read for that information. It was then noted there are bike racks stored at the sewer plant and where should they be placed. Marge Lumpe responded saying Community betterment had planned for a large one at the park, a large one at the school and a large one at the pool.
Locke then asked, “Are we still working with the working group?” Marge replied, “Yes!” The President of the Friends of the Rock Island group, Rick Mihaleurch stated “We have put $2,500 aside to be used for Cole Camp. We want to see this project completed.” Marge Lumpe then rose and presented the Mayor and the four council members with a Rock Island Trail guidebook that has been published and asked the group to please read the nice article in it on Cole Camp. Locke then said in a kidding, congenial manner, “Between Joann’s book and Marge’s Rock Island book, we have lots to read. Locke then questioned “Why didn’t the railroad come through Cole Camp originally?” At that point the age old misnomer was once more repeated. “Because the Germans didn’t want it and they all said Nay and that’s how the depot north of town got its name.” The meeting concluded but many questions had been asked and answered.
Fact check: The hard dollar and cents facts about why the Rock Island went north of town. In 1902 (according to an old item in the Courier newspaper,) a delegation from Cole Camp had gone to St Louis and met with Rock Island Executives. They offered to secure the right-of-way for them to come through Cole Camp. Company officials told them an engineering study did not favor the route due to higher cost of construction and so the railroad would bypass the town and go to the north, which it did. The depot north of town was named for one of the railroad executives, Robert Nay. It was discovered there was a rail yard in Texas named for him too. The depot building placed at Nay was built by two local men, Albert Eickhoff and George Kieffer.
