UP calls for trail removal

DOVER — Union Pacific is calling on a developer to remove a bike path built in railroad right of way without its permission.

The corporation learned of the trail’s existence earlier this month and is giving Ralph Sletager 30 days to remove it. The trail is located beneath and adjacent to Dover Bridge.

The trail connects the North Idaho Bikeways trail with Sletager’s housing development at Dover Bay, which has its own network of trails open to the general public.

“Please understand that Union Pacific owns this right of way in fee, and it is not reversionary, which is a common misconception among the public. We have no intention of relinquishing or conveying our title to this property,” Jim Larson, Union Pacific’s real estate manager, said in a July 9 letter to Sletager.

Sletager said in a statement that he’s looking into the situation and pointed out that the trail provides safe passage for bicyclists and pedestrians who would otherwise be forced to cross U.S. Highway 2.

“If the trail does need to be removed from its current, safe crossing under the bridge, we’re concerned how the hundreds of hikers, bikers and people pushing strollers will safely cross Highway 2 on their way to public beaches in Dover,” Sletager said in the statement.

But there does not appear any room for negotiation in the matter.

Tom Lange, the railroad’s director of corporate communications, said the trail amounts to trespassing and likened the situation to “waking up one morning to see that someone has built a bike path across your front lawn without your permission.”

Lange added that Union Pacific needs to maintain its right of way in that area for potential future use.

“Despite the country’s current economic situation, the U.S. Department of Transportation expects freight transportation demand to increase 92 percent by 2035 and the area in question belongs to part of an important rail corridor across the Northwest,” Lange said in an e-mail message on Tuesday.