(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson county board of supervisors Tuesday took no action on a proposal to massively restructure the Dickinson County Trails System. Under the proposal, the trails would no longer fall under the auspices of the Dickinson County Conservation Board of the Dickinson County Trails Association. Instead, David Murphy of the Trails Association says that group would be dissolved and an entirely new board would be created that would oversee building new trails, maintenance of existing ones, and finances.
Yvonne Taylor, President of the Trails Association, told the supervisors they received the blessings of the Conservation Board early in the process.
Murphy told the supervisors the cities of Arnolds Park, Milford, Okoboji, Orleans, Spirit Lake, Wahpeton and West Okoboji have signed a 28E agreement that would restructure the Trails Association. They’re now requesting the county to sign on. Murphy says each member entity of the 28E will be required to make a financial commitment. He says 50 percent of the annual administration budget would be shared between the cities and county based ont he latest population census of each city and the unincorporated areas of the county. That money would be used to hire a director to oversee the trails system. The other 50 percent would be based on the latest assessed values of each city and the unincorporated areas of the county.
After lengthy discussion and several questions, the supervisors took no action as to whether the county should sign on to the 28E. They wanted to make sure Assistant County Attorney Lonnie Saunders had a chance to review the documents. Saunders was unable to attend Tuesday’s meeting.
