ENTERPRISE — Continued hopes for a 63-mile development between Joseph and Elgin were the focus of an update on the Joseph Branch Trail Consortium’s Trail with Rails project Wednesday, Feb. 19.

The Wallowa County Board of Commissioners agreed to hold a work session with Gregg Kleiner project coordinator of the consortium, on the project in March, though no date has yet been scheduled.

He hopes to include the project in a refinement plan of the county’s Transportation System Plan and have about a monthlong period for public comment before adopting the plan.

He said he is not ready to try for another conditional-use permit from Wallowa County, but the city of Wallowa and the Nez Perce Tribe have been quite supportive.

Kleiner was extremely enthusiastic Wednesday about the project and said it could bring in many tourists — and their money — to both Wallowa and Union counties. So far, there is a quarter-acre pocket park at the project’s beginning point near the railroad station in Elgin and construction is underway for another park alongside the Wallowa River across from the Nez Perce Wallowa Homeland Project in Wallowa. Both allow a place for tourists to leave the trail and visit the towns and the amenities they offer.

Wallowa Mayor Gary Hulse and city Councilor Paul Doherty both were present to express their support for the project. County Commissioner Susan Roberts, the commissioner who serves on the Wallowa Union Railroad Authority, was not present, as she is on medical leave.

“We’ve been working on this project for many years,” Kleiner said. “It started as the Friends of the Joseph Branch, which is the excursion train, in 2001 running on the tracks. The WURA was established in 2002 as the Joseph Branch Consortium, our group. … Our group, the trail group, was founded in in 2012 so we’ve been working on this a long time, and we have been making some, some great headway recently.”

He said his group hopes to construct walking trails along the railroad tracks for the full 63 miles between Elgin and Joseph. He said the trail would be eight feet wide and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He emphasized that there are no plans to remove the railroad tracks, as a portion of them are still used by the excursion train. Work is needed on the tracks to make them safe for more use.

But all hasn’t gone smoothly. Several years ago, Wallowa County heard a conditional-use permit application submitted by the consortium to construct the trail project between Joseph and Enterprise, but the consortium withdrew the application before a vote was taken, after Commissioner John Hillock said he would recuse himself, due to the fact he owns land adjacent to the railroad corridor.

Also, numerous landowners expressed objections to having pedestrians and tourists walking along the tracks near their land. Objections over obstructing livestock, the potential for wildfires and littering were among the concerns. Motorized vehicles and camping will not be permitted along the trail.

Kleiner said his group is in the process of hearing the concerns of landowners and hoping to come to a solution that will satisfy them.

“We’ve got to communicate with the landowners and make sure it works for everyone,” he said.

Another of those concerns was that of liability claims if someone walking the trail should be injured near a landowner’s property. Kleiner said WURA carries a policy and homeowners’ own policies also could serve as protection.

“There’s lots of ways we could work together to make this a community asset for everyone,” he said. “I mean, there’s maintenance on the tracks, education, vegetation control, that we could help with, maintenance, clean up. There’s all sorts of ways we can collaborate, including grant funding.”

He said that since he started on the project four years ago, the consortium has brought in $800,000 in grants.

“Most of this goes right back to the communities,” he said.

He noted that people on their way to Wallowa Lake often rush down Highway 82 right by the towns.

“We’re trying to get some folks to stop, take a walk, maybe spend some dollars at the communities down the valley,” he said.

But having a trail along the tracks could be a safer way for tourists to travel. Rather than being limited to Highway 82 or Hurricane Creek Road between Enterprise and Joseph, the trail could allow a bypass of those busy thoroughfares.