Illinois Trail Corps aims to build better trails for less money
By Steve Buchtel, Executive Director, Trails for Illinois
ow can trail advocates make and maintaining facilities in a - ties?
H The Vision
Creating jobs for young adults who earn scholarships building trails. Young adult civilian conser- vation corps trained, coordinated, and equipped by Trails for Illinois, deployed with volunteers from May through September each year to build and repair Illinois’ network of non- motorized trails.
The Need
shrinking. In January 2013, 328 biking, walking, and trail projects in Illinois,
22 SPRING 2016
AmericanTrails.org
totaling more than $327 million dol- lars, were competing for $49 million of available funding through the Illinois Transportation Enhancements Program (ITEP), the largest source of funding for trails and other nonmo- torized projects statewide. Only 54 of those projects received funding. Studies show that trails in Illinois Bottom Line: economic, environmen- tal, and health and wellness. And trails have consistently occupied the top of survey results, from recreational home purchases and corporate reloca- tion. From this perspective, the limited scope of January 2013 ITEP announce- ments left a mountain of opportunity on the table to improve Illinois’ eco- nomic competitiveness and the overall quality of life in our State. One may point out that these untapped projects could be funded
through future awards, but in Illinois this is increasingly unlikely. Federal legislation passed in 2012 slashed funds formerly available through ITEP by roughly half; for 2013 and 2014, approximately $29 million is available through the Transportation Alterna- tives Program, ITEP’s successor. This reduces even more of our local agen- cies’ ability to tap the Triple Bottom Line return of trail development. Meanwhile, existing State trails are in crisis, with extended maintenance- related closures impacting communi- ties along the Hennepin, I&M, and Rock Island Trails for the last 10 years. The State, while having dedicated pro- grams for funding trail development, failed to award a single project from its Bicycle Path Program from 2008 to 2015. The State of Illinois has swept its own trail grant programs for other budget priorities. Recent legislation to restore funding makes no attempt
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