Committee meeting scheduled for March 16 @ 2 pm at the Oneida city hall.
We continue the conversation about latest news from the negotiations between RJ Corman and the entities working to buy the corridor.
The Exploratory Committee will present a phase 1 approach to placing barriers at some of the crossings that currently are looking too inviting to explorers wanting to drive down the railbed.
Committee Meeting planned for Feb 16
The next meeting of the Exploratory Committee will be at 2 p.m. February 16 at Oneida City Hall.
Anyone wishing to participate is welcome, but we ask that if you wish to speak that you put your name on the list as you enter. We want to give everyone a chance to contribute but need to limit the length of comments in order to end the meeting on time.
Scott County Commissioners Resolve to Oppose the Rail Trail idea
1/21/25
During the monthly Scott County Board of Commissioners meeting, perhaps a dozen property owners who are adjacent to the current railroad right of way expressed their wish to have the land of the railroad turned over to them.
The comments are similar to those expressed in the comment section of this site, ranging from simple claims that it is their right to complaints and concerns over current and potentially worsening crime.
One representative of the Exploratory Committee invited the commissioners to learn more about the project before voting on anything. At this point in time none of the commissioners nor the County Mayor have seen a proposal of what the bike path might cost to build or maintain, nor have they considered any of the potential good such a project might have in the county.
Therefore armed only with sentiment of the vocal landowners, and with the reminder from the county attorney that their voting has no bearing on anything, the commissioners voted in favor of a resolution “against the rail trail project.’
The Exploratory Committee will plan to meet on Feb 16, 2025 and will continue to investigate the pros and cons of the project and vows to seek answers to all the concerns as well presenting possible benefits to the community in Scott as well as Anderson and Campbell Counties.
Exploratory Committee + Public Forum Meeting
January 12, 2025
Present at the meeting were various committee members plus some 45 members of the public seeking to be heard about their concerns with the project.
• Welcome Comments - Mike Keeton welcomed all present reminding them that he, like them, is a landowner adjacent to the railroad right of way.
• Review and approve minutes of last meeting(s) - Ralph received motion and second and unanimous agreement to approve the Committee Minutes from prior 2 meetings.
Old-Business
• Status of Tenn Citizens for Wilderness Planning NITU extension - Ralph informed that the TCWP had filed for an extension on Dec 26, 2025 of the NITU and might hear within the week from the STB whether or not the extension is approved or not. If approved, the Railbanking status is extended thru April 2026 allowing additional time for TCWP to negotiate the transfer of the ROW.
• Meet with other trail stewards (Mountain Goat Rail-Trail) - Ralph and John spoke briefly about the meeting held with MGTA (see notes in prior news posting for details). General feeling is that there is much to learn from other trail programs.
• Create non-profit to manage any possible legal/financial needs - Ralph reported that a non-profit organization named Echoes of the Rail has been established in the event that that trail project needs a local sponsor. There has also been created a bank account at UCB to hold funds collected or to buy barriers and signs.
• Draft a website bulletin board to collect/share info with the community - Ralph confirmed that the website is live and available for promotion. www.echoesoftherail.org
• Seek info about barriers / signage to keep ATV / vehicular traffic off the corridor - John reported pricing and options have been explored. The best current option seems to be the use of old ties National Salvage cannot sell.
New Business & Prioritized Actions
• Review suggestions and plans for barriers - Tommy and John reported that the price for bundled ties seems to be the best option and will move forward with talks to buy them and have National Salvage place them at public crossing to discourage unwanted vehicle traffic. Sign material was demonstrated to those present, all agreed they were seemingly well made. Content and final costs is to be determined - hopes are still present that RJ Corman might be asked to contribute since it is their property that is being trespassed on.
• Publish and promote the website, invite comments: Ralph agreed to contact the local papers to have the website URL shared for all to see.
• Work with local governments / Go before the County Commissioners to help answer questions - Mike and Ralph plan to attend the upcoming County Commissioners meeting on Jan 21, 2025.
• Talk with Oneida Aldermen - need to follow up with Mayor Phillips-Jones about opinion of the Aldermen.
• Plan neighborhood meetings for residents - Mike invited all to host local meetings in neighborhoods along the old track. No one stepped forward as yet.
• Plan for valuation of corridor - TCWP has indicated they were working on an appraisal plan to understand what the right of way is worth.
Discussion / Q&A / comments from anyone present
Those present in turn reiterated the opinion of many landowners, that the land adjacent to the property they own should be given to them once the railroad is completely abandoned.
committee members, and Mayor Phillips-Jones, encouraged landowners to research their deeds to know what circumstance their portion of the rail right of way might be bound to. It is believed that if an easement was the initial instrument for allowing the railroad to use the land, then the land could revert to original landowners, whereas if the original transfer was a fee simple [purchase, then RJ Corman would be the owner of the land even after railroad operations cease.
It was discussed during the meeting, but generally overlooked by landowners, that under an NITU, terms of deeds be they fee simple or easements, do not matter, that the 1983 act of congress create the Railbanking systems which would override any reversion clauses and allow RJ Corman to pass title to the entire corridor in a single transaction to a trail manager.
Safety concerns were raised about the use of barriers, issue being that if someone was injured between barriers, safety personnel may have difficulty helping someone.
The concern was noted, and discussions need to be had with National Salvage about this.
People asked how they could reach “railroad” police to report people using the ROW to access their private property.
the number is being sought.
Next meeting of the committee to be held at Oneida City Hall on Feb 16 at 2 pm
Meeting with Patrick Dean with Mountain Goat Trail Association
1/8/24
In order to learn from the experiences of other recently created rail-trails in Tennessee, John McCracken, Ralph Trieschmann, Virginia Bruce and Lori Phillips-Jones had a zoom call with the Executive Director of the Mountain Goat Trail Association (MGTA) centered in Monteagle, TN. https://www.mountaingoattrail.org/
Mountain Goat Trail had different circumstance from what Scott County is considering since the rail bed they are converting to a trail was abandoned in the 1980’s meaning they had to buy land from CSX who owned a large stretch plus from local county ownership as well as a few land owners.
Patrick is a paid full-time employee of the MGTA as Executive Director. His primary job is grant writing and planning the buildout of the trail system a planned 40 mile stretch.
Funding sources include local fundraisers which contribute roughly $75k/ year. Additional money is coming from grants from agencies like Tennessee Dept of Transportation in support of Multimodal transportation; The Diabetes Foundation in support of healthy living; and various tourism and rural development grants from TN.
Patrick offered support as we need it. He invited anyone interested to have a tour of their trail.
Meeting with TCWP Board members
12/20/24
In order to better understand the history of the project and roles going forward, John McCracken and Ralph Trieschmann went to offices of The Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning to meet with members of their board.
It was learned that the organization’s initial filing for an NITU was based on one of their members learning of RJ Cormann’s intent to close railroad operations. They filed in April 2020 and in the time since then have been working with the STB and the railroad to promote and defend the right to convert the corridor into a trail.
The TCWP has plans to file for an extension of the NITU for an additional year beyond the current expiry date of April 2025. [The extension application was submitted on Dec 26, 2024]
To keep the information flowing between the Exploratory Committee and TWCP, it was agreed to share meeting notes and consider adding a member of TWCP to the Scott County Committee.
Follow-up meeting hosted by Dept of Tourism to learn more about rail-trail activities to date
November 19, 2024
As a follow-up to the very brief discussion of a rail-trail in Scott County brought up at the tourism meeting on October 9, 2024, the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development, hosted another meeting where the full agenda would be an update on actions taken and needing to be taken related to the trail idea.
The meeting was moderated by Jenni Veal, Rural Destination Development Manager for the TN Dept of Tourist Development. Also invited to share information were:
National Salvage representatives, who has begun the work of removing the rails and ties from the corridor,
Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning board members and executive director, the group who has filed for the right to convert the rail corridor into a trail,
Trust for Public Land representative, speaking to the nature of support this organization could provide as its done elsewhere throughout the country
McMinn County Mayor, speaking on his experience of building a rail-trail in his county.
The goal of this meeting was to share in-depth details of the proposed project with the Oneida tourism committee and city and county officials who had been in the October tourism meeting, allowing a chance for Q&A. In addition, County Mayor Jeffers made a public invitation at a recent commissioner’s meeting for other interested parties to attend, specifically landowners who have been or will be affected by the railroad abandonment.
It should be noted that there was no intention by the Department of Tourist Development to hold this meeting in secret, but their thought was that a smaller group would be able to receive all the information being shared and then determine how best to present the issues in a public forum. The fact that landowners attended the meeting and were able to voice their concerns simply helped to speed the process for public discussions to occur, and has lead to the creation of this website and the committee of local members looking to continue the conversation.
The meeting covered many opportunities and issues, which can be found on this site.
TN Department of Tourism Hosts event to discuss opportunities in Scott County - the rail-trail was one such opportunity mentioned
October 9, 2024
A meeting was held and hosted by the Tennessee Department of Tourism where they presented multiple topics surrounding the idea of promoting tourism as an economic growth engine for Scott County. The representatives from the state showed projects that have been successful in other rural areas of TN to generate revenues and tax dollars from tourism.
One of the guest speakers invited by the state was the Executive Director of the Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, Nancy Manning. Nancy provided the attendees with an introduction to the project her organization had been working on - i.e. the proposal to transfer ROW ownership of the Tennessee Railroad from RJ Corman to a trail manager who would build and maintain a hiking and biking trail along the 41 miles of the right of way.
Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning get 1-year extension on Notice of Interim Trail Use
THE TCWP filed with RJ Corman’s agreement for a 1 year extension of the initial NITU allowing additional time for negotiations to continue towards a transfer of the right of way to a trail manager.
Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning (TCWP) files for initial Notice of Interim Trail Use (NITU)
April 17, 2020
TCWP filed with the Surface Transportation Board for a Notice of Interim Trail Use (NITU), which was subsequently granted by the STB, effective for 1 year, allowing TCWP time to negotiate a transfer of right of way from the railroad to a trail manager organization.
RJ Corman Files for right to abandon railroad
RJ Corman buys railroad
March 9, 2020
RJ Corman, no longer wishing to operate a railroad along their Oneida Line (formerly the Tennessee Railroad), files with the Surface Transportation Board (STB) for the right to abandon the right of way (ROW). Railroads abandon lines when they no longer find rail operations financially viable and wish to relieve themselves of the obligation to maintain the right of way and all liabilities associated with ROW.
With consummation of abandonment, the 41 mile right of way as a single object would cease to exist and underlying parcels might revert to adjacent landowners (depending on deed language, easement terms, etc.) or might be real estate that the railroad owns outright that they could sell as they choose.
Abandonment and the break-up of the ROW is essentially stopped if the STB awards an organization a Notice of Interim Trail Use and an organization can come to terms with the railroad to basically assume ownership of the entire length of the ROW for public use as a trial - where such trail is considered temporary and allows for the chance to rebuild a railroad in the future.