Steve Ehlmann has a photo in his office that tells a story about Missouri politics.
Ehlmann is the county executive in St. Charles. He鈥檚 a Republican who was reelected last fall for what he says will be his final term in office. The picture is of him playing basketball with other state lawmakers in Jefferson City in the early 1990s, when he was a state representative. Jay Nixon, who would go on to become the attorney general and then governor, was there. He鈥檚 a Democrat. So is William Lacy Clay Jr., who would become a congressman from 狐狸视频.
It was a bipartisan group that got to know each other on the basketball court.
It鈥檚 the sort of group that would have found a way to build the Rock Island trail.
Funding for that trail, which would be built on abandoned railway and connect to the cross-state Katy Trail, has been locked up in a dispute in the Missouri Senate. For the past couple of years, Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, to jump-start construction of the trail. When he was governor, Nixon also pushed for its development.
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One of Missouri鈥檚 great strengths is its history of conservation, passing the test of time among Republican and Democratic leaders. The state has a diverse landscape that is worth preserving for future generations 鈥 for hunting, fishing, hiking, biking and just the common good.
I think of the Rock Island trail 鈥 and what it could mean for Missouri 鈥 every time I drive to Jefferson City. I take the back roads, mostly traveling west along Highway 50 through Beaufort, Leslie, Gerald and Rosebud. The route follows the same one the Rock Island trail would: south of the Missouri River, through the rural landscape. If fully built, the trail would traverse 144 miles across the state to Raytown, where it would eventually connect to the Katy Trail.
One of the reasons I drive this route when headed to the Missouri Capitol is because it straddles the state鈥檚 urban-rural divide. Even more than partisanship, that divide too often stands in the way of progress in this state. During the 12 years I鈥檝e lived in the 狐狸视频 region, that divide has become more pronounced, with urban interests constantly fighting with rural ones over guns, Medicaid, schools, puppy mills, crime.
Conservation issues, though, can help cross that divide. Dan and Connie Burkhardt helped teach me that. The founders of the Katy Land Trust, they spent most of their professional lives in the city and put their Warren County farm in the trust to help preserve farm land in Missouri鈥檚 historic river and wine country. But their purpose isn鈥檛 just about preserving land for future generations. They want to help Missouri鈥檚 biggest cities 鈥 狐狸视频 and Kansas City 鈥 realize the tourism benefits of connecting visitors to the rural parts of the state to enjoy the diverse landscape.
The concepts don鈥檛 have to be at odds. And the Katy Trail鈥檚 revitalization of small river towns 鈥 from Augusta to Hermann to Rocheport to Sedalia 鈥 shows that biking trails, preservation and tourism can all work hand-in- hand.
So it could be for the Rock Island trail, where coffee shops in Rosebud and a remodeled-mill-turned-restaurant in Gerald stand ready to take advantage of the development that is stalled by politics.
In some ways, it鈥檚 history repeating itself. Some landowners along the trail route are afraid they will lose something in the process of giving up easements, even after being compensated. Most of those fears were expressed during the development of the Katy Trail, but they never came to fruition. Farmers still farm; hikers and bikers enjoy their routes; landowners were compensated for their sacrifices; visitors come to Missouri from around the world. Everybody wins.
In the Missouri Senate, Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, seems to stand in the way. He has said he鈥檇 rather see money spent on maintenance of other state parks. That鈥檚 not an unworthy goal, though it doesn鈥檛 seem like a strong enough argument to pass on the one-time availability of federal money to complete a cross-state trail that will make Missouri the envy of the nation.
Hough is a reasonable fellow. He鈥檚 one of the few Missouri Republicans, for instance, who are willing to publicly stand up against his party鈥檚 trend toward gun-law or anti-LGBTQ extremism. He strikes me as the sort of politician who 20 years ago would have worked out a compromise with his colleagues 鈥 perhaps on a basketball court 鈥 as lawmakers of different backgrounds and interests found common ground.
There鈥檚 enough money in the Missouri budget to give rural towns along the Rock Island trail an investment that will breathe new life into them, while giving the state鈥檚 big cities another feather for their tourism caps.
All that鈥檚 missing is a couple of old-fashioned Missouri politicians who can cut through the frothy eloquence and give the Show-Me State a win that will pass the test of time.