Brown's Creek State Trail is Not Just a Benefit, It's a Responsibility

Now that it's official, I don't have to feel sheepish about throwing my editorial weight behind the Brown's Creek State Trail project in Stillwater.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I'm a huge fan of it.

A six-mile stretch that will eventually connect to a 600-mile statewide trail system and serve up to 200,000 people annually is not just an "asset to area businesses" as Washington County Commissioner Gary Kriesel said when the contract was signed on Feb. 16, but it's a social responsibility. 

That's right, I said 'responsibility', which is more than just a fiscal conversation. 

If it were up to me, I'd support any project or initiative that helps combat the obesity epidemic that has for so long plagued our citizens and, more recently, found our nation's youth particularly easy pickings.

But it's not up to me. It's up to Stillwater, Washington County and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to make it happen in a way that serves the community while also addressing what has become a serious public health issue. 

Here's the thing—and there's really no way of getting around it—we live in an age when authorities have a duty to plan projects and institute initiatives that make sense not only financially but socially and culturally as well.  

The Brown's Creek State Trail is one of those projects. 

Both Minnesota and Wisconsin are familiar with this debate. Late last year a joint committee reopened a discussion about including a bike/pedestrian path that would connect the communities of La Crescent and Dresbach in Minnesota to La Crosse in Wisconsin when it rebuilds the I-90 Mississippi River crossing. 

A plan that was initially shot down, the Minnesota Department of Transportation is planning to accept bids in 2012 for a bridge that includes a bike/pedestrian path—depsite a price tag of between $25-37 million—after government and athletic groups applied the requisite pressure on its behalf.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Action expresses priorities."

The Brown's Creek State Trail demonstrates the priorities of Stillwater, Washington County and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and I, for one, applaud their actions.