By Allison Floyd
allison.floyd@onlineathens.com

Trail Creek trestle, featured on the back cover of R.E.M.'s 1983 album "Murmur" File

   A committee of citizens and Athens-Clarke County commissioners charged with designing a trail along former CSX Transportation railroad right of way unanimously agrees on how the long-planned project should connect Barnett Shoals Road to the planned multimodal center in downtown.
   But commissioners locked in a heated debate Thursday over a controversial railroad trestle that some say is key to the trail project, but at least one commissioner says is pushed by preservationists with ulterior motives.
   The county bought the Trail Creek trestle, which is featured on the back cover of R.E.M.'s 1983 album ''Murmur,'' for $25,000 in 2000 to save it from the demolition that had already claimed three of the local historic structures.
   Now, county commissioners are poised to approve the official concept for a trail to be built on that old CSX line, but elected officials, engineers and trail advocates disagree about whether the trestle is the centerpiece of the project.
   There are four proposed designs for the trail, which could cost between $2.4 and $3.3 million, depending on the final layout, and might be funded with a mix of grants and sales tax. No design or construction money has been assigned to the project, and the land is still owned by CSX.
   Athens-Clarke government staff and District 8 Commissioner States McCarter favor a design that ends the trail at Dudley Park, saving the expense of restoring the trestle, but forcing cyclists to pedal up steep East Broad Street to reach the planned multimodal station.
   The Rails to Trails Committee favors another, more expensive design that would restore the deteriorating wooden trestle. The trestle is key to the trail project, because it would give a relatively level ride into downtown, said District 5 Commissioner David Lynn. And without the trestle, the trail project is virtually useless for transportation, Lynn added.
   The trestle may be too expensive to repair, McCarter argued, and a small group of people are pushing for its restoration, he said. If commissioners choose the design that uses the trestle, county engineers recommend that the government spend $50,000 immediately to hire a company to review the strength of the structure.
   ''This project is more about rebuilding the trestle for a small group of trestle enthusiasts, than it is about building a workable rails to trails,'' McCarter said. ''When we were talking about getting dollars out of Washington to do it, that was one thing.
   ''But we are talking about $50,000 of taxpayers' money just to do an assessment of the condition of that trestle and those piers. I don't think there's a public appetite for this.''
   Lynn disagreed, saying the proposal would preserve a piece of rock music history, but that's not the primary purpose of restoring the trestle.
   ''Commissioners McCarter's preoccupation with the trestle and R.E.M. is bordering on obsession,'' Lynn said. ''It has nothing to do with R.E.M.; it has everything to do with building a rails to trail.''
   

Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Saturday, October 25, 2003.