I think people who use or are interested in the Rail Trail where the St. J & L. C. R. R. once ran past Joe's Pond all the way from St. Johnsbury to Swanton, will be interested in this letter sent to State Representative Kitty Toll:

Hello Kitty,

 

I am back at Joes Pond to learn that only 33 of the 93 miles of the rail trail has been completed.  17 of those 33 miles are from Joes Pond to St. Johnsbury. 

So, in the 14 years since the original Sanders' earmark in 2005, just over a third of the trail has been completed.

 

The last time I emailed you, VAST's response ended with the statement that their snomobile members used the trail when the tracks were still intact. This means they have no vested interest to complete the trail for non-snowmobile folk like me.

 

What is being done about this?  What can be done to complete the trail? 

The VAST/LVRT website says they have raised less than 12% of the amount they claim is needed to finish the trail.

 

One suggestion I have is to take the money from Efficiency Vermont.  They have more money than they know what to do with.

 

Thanks, Andy Rudin

403 Old Homestead Road

 

If others have comments for Kitty Toll, you can contact her at ktoll@leg.state.vt.us 

or call her at 802-828-2228. 

 

I will ask Andy to share Kitty's response with me so I can post it here. This should be a concern for everyone who is interested in or who has invested in the rail-trail.Whether this failure is due to mis-management, poor planning or some other lack of foresight, it leaves a lot of people with some bad feelings about the whole thing, and that's a shame.