Council Says Yes to City Applying for Easement Trail for Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park
The Platte River Trails Trust has requested that the City of Casper apply for an easement, which would extend a pedestrian/bike trail at Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park.
That's according to a memo sent to City Manager Carter Napier from Parks, Recreation, and Public Facilities Director Zulima Lopez and others.
The easement would extend the trail within the Casper Rail-Trail from Hat Six Road to EKW.
"The easement would allow for the trail to be built, accessed, used, and maintained on land owned by [the] State of Wyoming," the memo states.
The extension would include an overpass structure at the Highway 26 junctions.
Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park representatives have offered a letter of support for this project.
Eric Easton, an Executive Board member of the Platte River Trails Trust spoke to the Casper City Council on Tuesday night during their regular work session.
"One of the things we're trying to accomplish is to have a trail from one end of Casper to the other; the west end to the east end," Easton said. "East end is, obviously, going to be a continuation of the trail on the old rail road that was donated to the city several years ago."
The memo states that the City of Casper acquired ownership of the Rail-Trail corridor by 'possession of a donative quitclaim deed from the Union Pacific Railroad.'
"We have the ability to go in and ask for an easement to connect the existing railroad right-of-way to the Edness Kimball Wilkins park," Easton said.
Easton told the Council that they need to apply to the State Lands and Investment to apply for the easement.
"What we'd like to do is ask for your permission to apply for that on your behalf; it will be owned by the City," Easton said. "We'd be happy to do the paperwork, to get the easements done, get the surveys completed, provide paperwork to the State lands and talk to the lease holders to see if there's any remediation that we need to do."
Mayor Knell asked how much it would cost to apply for this easement, and he asked if the Platte River Trails Trust had the appropriate funding to match. Easton said that, as this point, they're not asking for any money. They will handle the application fees and other expenditures that go with applying.
The council did give the go ahead for the City to apply for the easement.
Video of the Casper City Council work session can be seen in full below: