Bikers to Mariemont: Don't tell us to take a hike

[Garrison L. Hilliard]

The Cincinnati Off-Road Alliance (CORA) will lobby Mariemont Village
Council tonight to allow mountain bikers to continue using a trail along
Whiskey Run Creek that connects two parks.

Mayor Dan Policastro has said he expects village council to vote to ban
bikes because of damage done to Native American burial mounds and pioneer
sites. The trail was extended a year and a half ago to link Dogwood Park
off Pleasant Street to an adjoining Mariemont park called the South 80
Gardens and Walking Trails.

CORA President Doug McClintock said the village was not interested earlier
this year when CORA offered its expertise and financial assistance so they
could work together to design a trail along Whiskey Run Creek that would
both allay Mariemont’s concerns and allow cyclists.

But McClintock said CORA will try again tonight at the Mariemont Village
Council meeting that begins at 7 p.m.. in village offices at 6907 Wooster
Pike.





“We understand the decision to allow bikes on village land is purely up to
the residents and council, which is appropriate since the village built
the trails,” McClintock said.

“We will be present to make a statement about our ongoing commitment to
helping the village relocate the trail away from sensitive sites if they
will continue to allow multiple uses, including cycling.”

Exactly who extended the Whiskey Run Creek trail became the subject of
controversy after University of Cincinnati archaeologist Kenneth
Tankersley accused CORA of doing it – and running over two Native American
burial mounds and old pioneer gristmill and whiskey distillery/kiln sites
while it was at it.





Tankersley, who has been documenting archaeological sites in Mariemont
since the early 1970s, said the burial mounds and pioneer sites are on the
National Register of Historic Places and that any changes contemplated
must be vetted by multiple officials who enforce a complicated tangle of
local, state and federal laws.

McClintock said CORA did not extend the Whiskey Run Creek trail and that
the work was done by members of the Mariemont South 80 Committee, an
advisory group of village residents appointed by council that initially
focused solely on trail maintenance and development in the park for which
it is named.

Grant Karnes of Madeira, who is a member of both organizations, agreed
that it was the South 80 Committee that extended the Whiskey Run Creek
trail.

Karnes said Policastro gave the South 80 Committee permission before it
extended the trail in November 2015 and December 2015.

When asked if Mariemont had given any group permission to extend the
trail, Policastro said he needed to read over village minutes and the like
to refresh his memory.

Tankersley pointed the finger at CORA after Karnes spoke about the Whiskey
Run Creek trail extension at a Mariemont Village Council meeting in
January 2016.



















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Tankersley said Karnes is on CORA’s board of directors, is one of two CORA
stewards of the Whiskey Run Creek trail and that the trail extension is
listed as a 2016 accomplishment in CORA’s 2017 annual report.

But McClintock said that does not mean CORA was taking credit for building
the trail extension or that Karnes was representing CORA at the Mariemont
Village Council meeting in January 2016.

“While Mr. Karnes is a member of the Porsche Club of America, I fully
assume he wasn’t speaking for them at that meeting either,” McClintock
said.

Karnes, meanwhile, is circulating a 15-page document with his account of
the history of the trail extension to link Dogwood Park and the South 80
Gardens and Walking Trails entitled, “Mariemont’s Whiskey Creek Trail,
from Dream to Destruction to Discrimination.”

In it, Karnes said he was the chief trail designer and that he and other
volunteers worked about 250 hours to make a natural surface, multi-use
trail to nationally-recognized standards using only their hands, rakes and
hoes.

Karnes said volunteers had a head start on the .08-mile-long trail because
long-used paths were already in place at the north and south ends of
Whiskey Run Creek.

“In some places where the trail already existed, the trail bed needed to
be widened or leveled to accommodate bike traffic or to improve its
safety,” Karnes said.

“In the middle section, new trail needed to be constructed. Mostly this
consisted of moving fallen branches, trimming out the invasive honeysuckle
species and raking the surface to make it reasonably smooth.”

Karnes said the volunteers made three creek crossings and that in a few
spots where the trail ran along the side of a slope, dirt was moved a foot
or two downhill and re-compacted to form a level trail bed.

Tankersley has said the dirt moving and creek crossing were done without
the proper authorization from multiple officials, led to damage of the
historic sites and undermined the delicate balance of the sloping,
forested hills that surround the Whiskey Run Creek trail.

Karnes claimed in his document that Policastro wants to ban bikes on the
trail to retaliate and discriminate against Karnes and other bike
supporters who have opposed the mayor in other village issues.

Policastro has said he was alarmed by the damage done to the historic
sites, is working with Tankersley to ensure it doesn’t happen again and
that he believes after hiking the extended Whiskey Run Creek trail that it
is not wide enough and the sightline too obscured by turns in the trail
and foliage for bikers and hikers to safely enjoy together.

Want to know more about what is happening in Mariemont? Follow me on
Twitter @jeannehouck.




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