Marinette’s plans for Rail to Trail path chugging along

MARINETTE – The Marinette City Common Council’s decision to sell a waterfront parcel at Menekaunee Harbor to Mike Biehl, owner of MJB Industries Inc., could impact the cost of connecting the harbor park to a walking and biking path the city plans to construct next year.

The city has secured a $450,000 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources stewardship grant to construct the new “Rail to Trail” walking and biking path along the old Canadian National railroad tracks near Water St. from 8th St. near Marinette Middle School to about Ogden St., Marinette Mayor Steve Genisot said. The city is providing half of the grant amount, or $225,000, and the DNR providing is the other half, he said.

With construction of the new Rail to Trail path, the city envisions a walking-biking path from the middle school to the harbor and continuing south to Red Arrow Park.

“You expand the trail, you continue the recreation all the way down to Red Arrow. I think it will be great for the whole entire area for recreation,” Genisot said.

Council Member Tom Karban said biking trails are a draw for many municipalities. “I’m an avid biker and runner. My wife and I, we just we did a 300-mile bike ride out in Pittsburgh from DC a month ago,” he said. “You see how they do it, and how these municipalities embrace it. It’s amazing,” he added.

Karban said he wasn’t concerned about the Menekaunee Harbor project interfering with the plans for the walking-biking trail. “We will still have an easement. We’re going to be able to go through there,” he said.

According to Genisot, the grant for the Rail to Trail project was secured before the city negotiated the waterfront real estate deal with Biehl, who said he is purchasing Harbor Town Marine Inc. from Michael and Barbara Frenzel of Menominee, Mich., for $2.5 million. He also owns a parking lot near the harbor.

In Common Council discussions and negotiations for the sale of the waterfront property, one proposal involved the city reimbursing Biehl $50,000 for repairs to the walking path at Menekaunee Harbor, allowing him to do the work, but the deal the Common Council voted on did not include the reimbursement, Council Member Ken Keller said. Instead, the council agreed to sell Biehl the waterfront parcel for $100,000, Genisot said.

The planned Rail to Trail path doesn’t include the walkway at Menekaunee Harbor, said Brian Miller, city engineer and director of public works. It ends just east of Ogden Street at the parking lot near the harbor, he said.

The planned path was expected to connect to an existing walkway at Menekaunee Harbor and the Common Council negotiated an easement for the walkway through the Harbor Town Marine property Mike Biehl plans to purchase. Biehl said he agreed to a 15-foot easement.

“Biking and walking paths are a big thing,” said Common Council President Dorothy Kowalski. “That passed for us to hire the firm to get the project together, the whole thing, then we can decide to move forward after that.”
Kowalski said the plan includes a path to Red Arrow Park, but Keller said the existing path isn’t part of the Rail to Trail project. Constructing a wider sidewalk for biking would cost more, he said.

With the possibility of having to pay to reconstruct the walkway at Menekaunee Harbor, the city might have to come up with more funds.
For Biehl to complete his expansion plans at the harbor, “He’ll be tearing the sidewalk out and will have to reconnect with this walkway,” Keller said. “The figure that was thrown out was $50,000 to replace that sidewalk.” It’s unclear who’s to pay, he said.

The meetings where the path was discussed were confusing, Keller said, and this contributed to the council’s five to three split vote, with three council members opposing the waterfront property sale. “The mayor put a comment out there that made it sound like we’re replacing the sidewalk to Red Arrow.

Well, we’re not replacing that,” Keller said, because of the cost.

Miller said the project is in the design phase with Mead & Hunt doing the design work. Then, he said, it will be put out for bid. A call to Mead & Hunt resulted in an email from the firm referring a reporter to the City of Marinette for more information.

The city had purchased the old, abandoned Canadian National railway near Water Street about a year and a half ago, Genisot said. “We’re actually designing the trail right now, hopefully to be constructed this summer.”

A smaller 5-foot sidewalk currently exists from Red Arrow Park, traveling northwest to Ogden Street near Menekaunee Harbor, providing the public with access, Keller said. The Menekaunee walkway was constructed on a levee the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorized in 1973, he added. “A five-foot-wide concrete walk was placed on the dike in the fall of 1993. The remainder of the levee from Red Arrow to East Bayshore St. (approximately 700 hundred feet) was linked to the walkway as a nature trail in 2020,” Keller said in an email.

“It makes for an enjoyable walk because of its unique nature, zero elevation change, water scenery and length of 3,200 feet, or 4,240 if you go from Ogden to East Bayshore,” he said.

While the sidewalk is traversable, at 5 feet wide, it is “fine for walking but can be a problem for biking and walkers at the same time,” Keller said.

When the city made renovations to the south side of the harbor, it increased the sidewalks to 10 feet wide, Keller said. If the walkway at Menekaunee Harbor is to be improved, it should also be 10 feet wide, he said.

Miller agreed it needs to be 10 feet wide to provide lanes going in both directions where people can walk, bike, rollerblade or push a stroller comfortably.