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Reply to Bikers, Terrorists and Trespassers -- Oh My!
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Don from Ellisville, MO on 12/27/2017 2:00:24 PM:
If you want a good chuckle, please read this article in the California, MO paper re the Rock Island.
http://www.californiademocrat.com/news/local/story/2017/dec/24/rock-island-reluctance/705804/

Yes, they should have a voice, but their peers expressed the same fear-mongering back in 1986. It just gets tiresome after a while.

Here is an example: "And here is my biggest concern: What if they walk up that road in the middle of the night and put something in that milk tank — and we don't know it and we don't know how to test for it?"

Yup, once again, bioterrorists are going to go way out of their way to come to rural Missouri, get on their bikes, then dismount and sneak up the Rock Island to specifically target your one milk tank (because using any other method would be too pedestrian for them).

 
Anonymous on 12/27/2017 7:08:19 PM:
What about all of the renegade train conductors and engineers? Did these people oppose the railroad when it came through also? I'm guessing there were cases where coal was used to darken the faces of railroad renegades as they went on cow tipping frenzies in the middle of the night. Probably even used coal to paint black spots on Charolais cattle to fool farmers into thinking they were Holstein milk cows. It's a shame they lost their battle with the railroad companies and had to put up with all that bullsh&it.

 
BikerBoy from Maryville, IL on 12/29/2017 9:37:23 AM:
I understand the initial fear because it is change. And change is scary for some people. But once embraced, it opens up an incredible new world of experiences and opportunities.

I've mentioned before that my father's family farmland straddles the Katy Trail. If not for the trail, that land would be overgrown and would be more of a target for misuse by vagrants, druggies and whatnot (and still that possibility is low). But with the trail, the land's value has gone up. The land around the trail has been appraised at 3X what the rest of the farmland is worth. According to the appraiser, some of this is due to the potential business value, and some due to the fact that the trail area is maintained so well and is a state park.

In the 20+ years that the trail has been operational through the farmland, we've not had a single incident of maliciousness. We do get loiterers -- the kind that stop pedaling, get off their bikes and take pictures of our soybean and cornfields set against the river bluffs. We've even had some folks interested in opening a winery on our bluffs.

Our feeling is that change is inevitable, so you might as well shape it in a positive direction for you and your heirs.

 
Anonymous on 12/29/2017 10:43:03 AM:
Criminals using a bike trail to wreak havoc on the land.

Oh the humanity....