By Dave Baumeister
County Correspondent
HARTFORD – About 50 people met on Monday, Oct. 28 at West Central High School to learn about a proposed bike/walking trial envisioned for Minnehaha County around Wall Lake.
Tesa Schwans, a Wall Lake resident, and Chad Hanisch, director of Infrastructure Design in Sioux Falls, explained the vision behind the project, and in these early stages were looking for any and all comments, concerns and questions to help with future planning.
Schwans, who calls herself an “avid biker,” said that the original idea for the project came to her when she saw a woman pushing a baby stroller on one of the busy roads near the lake.
The plan now calls for construction to begin in 2023 and is expected to cost between $2.2 and $3.2 million.
To that end, a 501(c)(3) group, the Friends of Wall Lake, has been formed to help with available grants and raise the funds necessary for the project.
At the meeting, people heard from Minnehaha County District 9 State Representative Mike Saba, who sits on the Joint Appropriations Committee.
While he said the last thing the people of Minnehaha County want to see is their taxes going up, he explained that having the state appropriate money for the trail makes it more of an “official” project, which could help bring in additional dollars from other sources.
Saba specifically cited the Palisades project near Garretson as an example of this.
Also, Minnehaha County Commissioner Jeff Barth was on hand to support the project.
“Let’s get this done. It’s a great idea,” he said.
Current plans are for the main part of the route, when finished, to be a four-mile trail going around the lake on Highway 42 to County Road 151 street to CR 146 to 462nd Ave.
During questions and comments after the main presentation, people did voice some concerns.
One person talked about a possible need for parking, as she envisioned people coming from Sioux Falls and around the county to travel on the proposed trail, and another area resident brought up the simple problem of having to worry about his dog chasing after people on the trail, as it is uncommon for people in the country to leash their pets.
Hanisch said these were all “great questions.”
“We are at ‘ground zero’,” he said about the planning stages of the trail, “and we need to discuss and figure out how to deal with any issues.”
Hanisch’s company recently did a similar project at Lake Kampeska, near Watertown.
One of the purposes of the meeting, Schwans said, was to get names of people to help on various steering committees.
To that end, she added, a Facebook page – Wall Lake Trail Project – has been started.
