The St. James City Council heard a proposal by Dan Fuhrmann with Route 66 Bicycles out of Rolla Tuesday night to construct a mountain bike trail that would utilize the current hiking and biking trail and 236 wooded acres to bring in visitor traffic to St. James.
Fuhrmann provided examples of other communities that have done similar projects, such as Warsaw, Mo., and have seen a great interest by visitors and residents alike. Fuhrmann has been involved with creating trails in other communities as well as analyzing trails in the area and presented a proposal to the council for ways to utilize the area to benefit St. James.
“It came to me as I was riding your trail there. The 236 acres, which are mostly wooded, would lend itself well to a trail,” Fuhrmann told the council. The area was recently annexed by the city and is connected to the current trail, which would allow for multiple areas for bikers of all riding levels, beginner to advanced.
“Basically, they are hiking trails, wide enough for one person or a bike.  It makes a good experience without using lots of land and pack it into a smaller area.” Fuhrmann showed aerial views of Lions Club Park in Rolla showing how long trails can be contained within a smaller area and could be utilized by the community.
He recommends that, if the council should like to pursue this option, the city would align itself with trail organizations such as the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) or something similar as they could also aid with equipment in the construction. “The IMBA is the largest mountain biking organization in the country,” Fuhrmann said.
Fuhrmann explained that after talking with a representative over the phone, the organization was willing to verbally back the project. He says that a trail should be a minimum of five miles, but recommends an eight- to 10-mile trail. Once established, events could be held on the trail that could benefit the city. Since parking and the beginning of the trail have already been established, the majority of the work would be to construct additional trail, which Fuhrmann has offered his services to aid in producing.
No costs were estimated, as there are many factors that would go into creating a trail. Fuhrmann said that the trail can be created as quickly or slowly as the council would like and could utilize volunteers, any businesses that would like to get involved, biking groups in St. James and surrounding communities, and other options that might present themselves.
“It would bring more traffic to the (current) trail. It would also provide reasons to seek more grants for more trails or improvements,” said Fuhrmann. He added that Warsaw has seen increases in tourism since creating its trail and those businesses quickly became involved with maintenance after seeing more business coming to town.
“Anything that increases tourism in our community, I think that we should look into,” Mayor Dennis Wilson said.
Fuhrmann will make the same presentation to the Parks and Recreation Board at its meeting on February 20 and, if the board agrees to pursue it, could come back to the council with a recommendation at a later meeting. Details will be laid out during the Parks meeting and any concerns will be addressed before moving forward.