Supporters urge commissioners to secure funding for Conotton Creek Trail

Supporters of the Conotton Creek Trail continue to press for long-term financial stability, as Dee Ann and Harry Horstman again appeared before the Harrison County commissioners to advocate for funding. Dee Ann Horstman addressed the board, reading from a prepared statement and noting her involvement with the trail dating back to the mid-1990s, when she served as chair of the Harrison County Planning Commission and as a charter member of the Conotton Creek Trail Committee.

“Our concern is with the future funding of the trail, inasmuch as we thought its funding was from the Harrison County Recreational Fund,” Horstman said. “If the transfer of the Recreational Fund into the General Fund becomes a reality, it is our hope and request that the operational funds for the Conotton Creek Bike Trail can be earmarked or used.”

Commissioner Dustin Corder responded that the Ohio Auditor of State’s office informed the board that the way the recreational fund was established prevents the county from using it to support the trail. Horstman said she had not been aware of that restriction.

“Recreational funding has to go to an impacted watershed, but it has nothing to do with us not wanting to help the trail,” Corder said, citing Ohio Revised Code 353.01.

Corder emphasized that the issue is not a lack of willingness to support the project. “We are very open to helping any area in Harrison County,” he said. He explained that the board previously used some of the recreational fund for what it believed were allowable recreational purposes, but the auditor later determined the expenditures were not permitted.

Commissioner Paul Prevot added that after reviewing the statute, “the way it’s written,” there is nothing in the county—aside from the Muskingum Watershed—that qualifies for the funding.

“Pursuant to the Ohio Revised Code that they pointed out to us, there were certain requirements for our watershed and a number of visitors, and we evaluated that,” Corder said after the meeting. “Nowhere in Harrison County outside of the Muskingum Watershed would qualify for this money. So, we have to dissolve that fund, move it back to the general fund and then decide, can we create another fund that we can use the money for what its intended purpose was?”

Corder said the county can still contribute to the trail through the general fund because the county owns the trail, but not through the recreational fund that is now being dissolved.

A first public hearing to reallocate 1% revenue from the established recreation fund to the county’s general fund was held before Horstman spoke. A second hearing was to take place Dec. 1.