ELGIN — The status of the Wallowa County portion of a proposed 63-mile rails-with-trails route from Elgin to Joseph may be in question, but the outlook for the Union County segment is strong, according to Gregg Kleiner, project coordinator for the Joseph Branch Consortium.

The proposed project would follow tracks owned by the Wallowa Union Railroad Authority and could be used by hikers, bikers and horseback riders.

The construction of the Union County segment, which would run for 15 miles along railroad tracks from Elgin to the Lookingglass area, will not be influenced by whether the Wallowa County portion is built.

“It will have no impact,” Kleiner said.

Kleiner said that because of strong support the project is receiving in Union County from the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Oregon State Parks and the city of Elgin, the building of the trailhead and the first 1,056 yards of the trail will likely start in late summer and could be completed sometime in 2023.

The outlook does not appear to be as bright in Wallowa County. Wallowa County Commissioner Susan Roberts and Wallowa County Planning Director Franz Goebel have both indicated that the project has met with strong objection from county residents.

The Joseph Branch Trails Consortium, which is managing the planning work for the proposed 63-mile trail, submitted a plan about two years ago to Wallowa County’s planning commission and asked for a conditional use permit for it but it was rejected. The Joseph Branch Trails Consortium then appealed the decision to the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners but withdrew its appeal before the board could make a ruling, Roberts said.

Kleiner said it is possible that the Joseph Branch Trails Consortium may reapply for a conditional use permit. He also said the project could move forward in Wallowa County without a conditional use permit by putting in segments of the trail inside cities. He said he has been working with community members in Wallowa and Joseph on the project and is receiving encouraging responses from them.

“A lot of people are excited about it,” he said.

Kleiner anticipates that parents will be among those supportive of it in cities because the trail would provide a secure route for their children to travel while walking or biking to and from school.

“It would provide a safe alternative route,” he said.

Meanwhile in Union County preparations for the construction of the trailhead in Elgin are continuing.

“It will be a pocket park,” Kleiner said.

The trailhead-pocket park will be on a parcel of city-owned land directly across from the train depot in downtown Elgin, Kleiner said.

In addition to trail information, the trailhead-pocket park would include an electric vehicle charging station, an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant parking place, a gazebo and interpretive signage about the area’s earliest inhabitants and more recent history.

The trailhead will be built with funding from a $142,000 grant from the Oregon State Parks Recreational Trails Program.

Further work on the trail from Elgin to the Lookingglass area, after the first 1,056-yard initial segment is finished, will not be done until planning work is completed. The planning, which is now beginning, is being funded by an ODOT Transportation Growth Management Grant of about $130,000 the city of Elgin received in 2021.

It is not known if the Joseph Branch Trails Consortium will need to receive permits from Union County to build the trail beyond the Lookingglass area, according to Scott Hartell, Union County’s planning director. Hartell said until a plan is submitted, he will not know if county permits will be required.