ABBEVILLE, La. ( KLFY )– A rails-to-trail project proposal to convert unused railroad tracks into a walking and bike trail has many residents voicing safety concerns.
Christopher Wallis one of many concerned residents told News 10 that through gathering information through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests the project was not started by a group of citizens but allegedly by the local government.
“Proposing an idea that will privately and personally enrich themselves at the expense of the citizens and they’re going around everyone in order for this to become a reality,” he said.
Wallis said many residents didn’t even know about the project until it was broadcast in the news back in April. Since then it has created mixed feelings about plans to have the project make further progress. News 10 reached out to the city attorney Bart Broussard about the project and he replied, “I am not associated with any such project and have no knowledge on the matter.”
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News 10 also reached out to Mayor Rosyln White’’s office in which it was stated the rails to trails was not a city project but a group of citizens. Therefore, who is the group of citizens, and who’s pushing support for the project?
Wallis answered, “Well, it becomes a Spider-Man meme where everybody’s pointing at each other, and nobody’s part of it, and that’s kind of what’s pernicious about this. The earliest FOIA requests we’ve got show that this was concocted, at least at that point by Taylor Mencacci of Erath. At some point, Mayor Roslyn White was involved and so was the Vermillion Parish Tourist Commission and VEDA Vermilion Parish Economic Development.”
Wallis continued by saying, “It’s kind of all of them but because no one person says, Hey, this is my project, they can all point at each other, say well I don’t know who’s doing this. This isn’t me.”
One safety concern is the crime within the city.
“We’re pipelines, a crime element that Abbeville has and is known for, into their backyards. In some of these people’s yards, you’re 40 feet from your back door to the trail. These people would have access to a thoroughway through your backyard and that can’t be good. Not whenever we can’t police and manage crime here now,” Wallis said. “Now you’ve got this private area that can hypothetically connect the Vermilion Parish River to the Teche and who’s going to police it? We don’t have the resources as is.”
Another concern is the railroad acts as a storm barrier and is a surge protection zone.
“If they reduce that, it’s going to flood North of 14 and as we saw in [Hurricane] Rita that’s the only thing to stop it and so without mitigation, you’re looking at flooding entire communities, all for this private trail,” he said.
Wallis also said many residents don’t want their land possibly taken away to build the walk and bike trail.
“Those deals have terms and overwhelmingly the terms are whenever this is no longer in use if we abandon the track or we’re done with it, the rights of that land revert to the owner, their original owner, or their children and grandchildren,” he said.
A GoFundMe account , petition , and even signs have been placed around the community to stop the project.
“Obviously, we’re trying to get our word out there. Our opinion, our will out there. We’ve tried to meet with these people,” Wallis said. “You would think if it was a community-based thing, we would know who’s involved because they would be in our communities and they’d be canvassing, they’d be going door to door and saying, Hey guys, look, this might be something that we would want to think about. You go to those who would be first and most directly affected and get their permission or get them on board with you. Nobody’s done that.”
News 10 tried to reach out to people who support the project but did not receive anyone by news time to go on record.
“Once you start bringing up the specifics, they kind of get grounded back into reality because it sounds good, it’s a pipe dream and it’s really nice and it’s a lofty ideal, but the reality on the ground doesn’t lend to that,” Wallis said.
Homer Stelly, Chairman of Vermilion and Iberia Railroad Development District Board of Commissioners , said their mission is to try to keep the residents and business places informed of the operation of the railroad.
“As everybody knows the railroad in Vermilion Parish right now there’s no traffic and hasn’t been traffic on it for a couple of years now but we still, as a community, we still holding ourselves together here in case there is an opportunity to put transportation back on the railroads in Vermilion Parish,” Stelly said.
He said as a railroad committee, their input is neutral and they will let the two parties resolve the issues. Therefore, a meeting will be held July 23 at 1 p.m. at the Vermilion Parish courthouse.
“There’s a lot of negativity about having this bike to trail. As a railroad committee, we’re just going to host a meeting and let the two parties decide what they want to do,” Stelly said.
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