'Rails to trails' has hit a dead end in Lewis county.
 
This week, county lawmakers officially gave up on buying two dormant rail lines for a new recreational trail. 

The reason? The project reached the point where neither supporters nor opponents of all-terrain vehicles were happy.
 
"People use the word 'atv' and bubonic plague in the same sentence, the same breath," legislature chairman  Jack Bush told 7 News.

"However, they don't have any problems spending the money atvs generate."

That's the conflict: riding atvs is the spring, summer and fall equivalent of snowmobiling - and like snowmobiles, atvs are a business: selling and servicing the machines, feeding and housing the people who come to the county to ride.

But a lot of people equally don't like atvs: they complain about riders violating farmlands, about the noise, about the mess.

And trying to strike a balance between those two views is what killed 'rails to trails.'

Some officials balked at allowing atvs onto the new recreational route. Then, when the project was changed to exclude atvs, the other side wouldn't go along.

"I believe the only downfall of the proposal to certain legislators was the clause in there, no atvs," said Mike Tabolt, county legislator.

Legislator Rick Lucas said atvs would have generated the money - through permits - to pay for the trail's upkeep.

"When you involve the atv side, it's the only revenue-generating side of this trail debate that we have," said Lucas.

So, now what? The railroad is still for sale. Lewis County won't owns it, but maybe someone else will.

"A not for profit club could come in and maybe turn some of the rails into trails just as we had hoped to propose," said Tabolt.

However, they'll likely do it without the $450,000 state grant the county had to develop the trail.  County legislators have officially voted to tell the state, no thanks. 

What were the trails in question?

One is a 17 mile spur from Lowville to Carthage.

The other is a 10 mile spur from Lowville to Croghan.

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