Revised county agreement advances McCook walking trail project

The Red Willow County Commissioners signed an updated agreement for the McCook walking trail but only after stipulating that the county would withdraw from a 1977 agreement and not contribute financially to the project.

Commissioners voted to sign the updated pact, with Commissioners Leigh Hoyt and Steve Dower voting for it and Commissioner Earl McNutt voting against it.

McCook Building Inspector Liron Yost and city engineer Greg Wolford met with County Commissioners at a regular meeting Monday morning to discuss the Memorandum Agreement for the McCook Walking Trail. The original agreement, signed in 1977, had the city, the Middle Republican Natural Resource District and Red Willow County in support of a possible walking trail in Kelley Park, parallels to Kelley Creek.

The Memorandum Agreement needed to be updated by the three entities, as the engineering firm who works with the Nebraska Department of Roads, Sinclair and Hille, requested the updated document, according to Becky Kilpatrick at the March 26 Commissioner meeting .

A grant for the walking trail project is being requested from the Department of Roads.

Commissioner McNutt explained at Monday's meeting that Red Willow County Attorney Paul Wood had a copy of the agreement and advised the Board to table the matter because the agreement requires that the county be responsible for 20 percent of the project.

Yost and Wolford assured commissioners that it is not the city's intent to request any funds from the county and that commissioners could could sign the agreement with a stipulation that the county would not have to contribute to the project.

Wolford explained that this is a federal project that required the political subdivision to provided five percent of the project and to have it in the bank at the project's inception.

He added that as gas taxes fund these Nebraska Department of Roads grants, it is basically taxpayers money coming back to the community.

"We pay for trails every time we buy a gallon of gas," he said.

McNutt maintained that the board wanted to be very clear in the wording of the agreement before it was signed. But Wolford argued that that would slow down the process of the project, as the revised agreement would have to go before the McCook City Council and the NRD again.

If the agreement isn't signed by April 30, they would have to go back to the Nebraska Department of Roads for an extension, he said.

A motion was made by Hoyt, seconded by Downer, to sign the document as presented with the stipulation that Red Willow County does not contribute financially to the walking trail and to authorize the County Attorney to draw up a Memorandum of Agreement that removes the County from the 1977 agreement.

McNutt said he voted against the motion as he wanted the agreement to be revised before the vote.