Politicians demonstrate hypocrisy on Elroy-Sparta State Trail

By KAREN PARKER | County Line Publisher

Acting as chair of publicity for the Vernon County Dairy Breakfast was a unique experience. Not only did I get to control the media, but also it gave me the distinct pleasure of informing the politicians that there would be no baby kissing, brochure handing or glad-handing. No, you can’t set up a table, and, no, you cannot corner folks and talk about the great job you are doing.

The dairy breakfast host, I informed them, requested a politics-free zone. And good for him!

Of course, I told them, this event is open to the public and we sure could use some help bussing tables or picking up trash. That must have sounded too much like real work, as no one took me up on the offer.

I wonder how many hours of my life I have spent over the past 32 years listening to politicians preen, prevaricate and strut. In a perfect world, I would get that time back.

But in a perfect world, a bolt of lightning would have struck the stage at the recent 50th anniversary of the Elroy-Sparta State Trail. It’s not that I favor killing off the four elected representatives who were standing on the stage. Just curling their hair would have been enough. Or, perhaps like Pinocchio, their noses would grow and grow and grow.

Excuse me, but was I the only one in the audience who found the chutzpah of state Reps. Nerison, Vandermeer and Brooks and state Sen. Marklein astonishing?

Really, folks, did you actually stand up there and congratulate yourself on the wonderful bike trail, knowing that when the governor’s budget comes around for a vote later this month, you will follow the party line and vote to remove public funding for state parks and trails?

Never mind that the nonpartisan legislative fiscal bureau has already said that this has been attempted in other states and failed.

“Just raise the user fees,” is the response of the Republicans. Tom Tiffany (R-Hazelhurst) said that makes sense.

“The people that utilize a service; they should pay for that service,” he said.

With that sort of thinking running the state, there never would have been an Elroy-Sparta State Trail. In 1966, the CNW rail right-of-of way cost the state $12,000, or about $90,000 in today’s dollars. Add to that the cost of converting a rail bed to a bike trail and the costs of maintenance for years to come.

I can hear the legislators now.

“Let the bikers pay for it.”

Of course, back in 1966, most bikers were under the age of 16 and not good candidates to cover the costs. Maybe the state could have gotten Bazooka Bubble Gum to assume responsibility for the trail in exchange for naming rights. And naming rights is an idea the DNR has not ruled out as it struggles to operate with less and less money for our public properties.

It’s really a challenge to determine how we have come to this. Were that many Wisconsin residents upset to see their taxes going to support parks and trails? Have outragedcitizens said they prefer dirty bathrooms, unkempt walking trails and long admission lines in state parks?

It was the 50thanniversary of the trail, but also it was the 50th anniversary of Wisconsin passing the Wild Rivers Act. We were the first to have a wild and scenic rivers law. Eight years later, Minnesota and several other states responded with similar legislation, and in 1968, the federal government followed suit with regulations of its own.

The act prohibits dams and other structures from impeding water current and protects shorelines. It also stipulates that vegetation must remain untampered within 150 feet of the riverbank, and that only walk-in access is provided on state-owned grounds — no motorized vehicles allowed.

“This was a classic case of Wisconsin being a leaderin the nation, and you could even argue perhaps the world, when it comes to river protection,” Mark Peterson, executive director of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College, told Wisconsin Public Radio.

Are we leaders of anything now, or have we become a laughingstock? Will this generation of politicians leave us anything to be proud of 20 years from now?

After we have slashed away at schools, higher education, parks, trails and environmental protections, what exactly is the legacy?

On Saturday, Brian Rude spoke at the program dedicating Ontario’s Palen Park. I asked him to speak, even though when he was in office I called him a Democrat in Republican clothing.

Rude left the legislature in 2000, after 17 years. The high note of his career, in my estimation, was working across party lines to establish the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.

Perhaps Rude also was looking back with some nostalgia when he said, “Moderation, compromise and respect for people who serve have deteriorated. Today, politics is marked by red state/blue state battles, insistence on adherence to a party line and outright derision of one’s elected officials.”

Afterward, he asked me if he had been too negative.

Really? No.

I think we can’t remind our current crop of legislators often enough that we want them to work and play together for the good of all the people of Wisconsin. And until they do, they will no longer be invited to public events. If we need gas bags, we will rent a hot air balloon.

And be sure and come to the Vernon County Dairy Breakfast on Saturday, when I can almost guarantee there will be pancakes without politics. And the only sap will be in the maple syrup.

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