Post-Dispatch Begs Matt Blunt for Smoke, Mirrors

In an editorial entitled KATY TRAIL: Risky business, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch pleads with Matt Blunt:

MATT BLUNT surely doesn't want to be known as the governor who lost the Katy Trail State Park on a technicality. But unless he makes sure that the demolition of a railroad bridge in Boonville won't jeopardize the trail's future, he may get stuck with that rap.

Mr. Blunt should make sure, beyond any legal doubt, that the Katy Trail is protected before letting its owner, Union Pacific dismantle the bridge.

The 73-year-old railroad bridge hasn't held a train in two decades, and it's closed to hikers and bikers. Over the years, Union Pacific tried unsuccessfully to give the bridge away. But neither the town of Boonville nor the state wanted the cost or the liability. The bridge's only purpose is to maintain the legal fiction that the Katy Trail some day may be turned into a rail line again.

That's a very important illusion.

So the Post-Dispatch wants the governor to perform reverse eminent domain on Union Pacific and make the railroad keep its property, which the governments do not want, to maintain a legal fiction.

The Post-Dispatch wants more smoke and mirrors from government. Matt Blunt doesn't want business as usual in the government. Our vote is with Matt Blunt.