La Crosse parks department apologizes for lack of notice about bluff plan

Some people in La Crosse still have concerns about a proposed hiking and biking trail in the bluffs. 

A two-hour informational meeting Monday night in a nearly-full city council chamber may have helped ease some of those concerns. 

La Crosse parks and rec. director Jay Odegaard responded to questions about the effect that new trails might have on the condition of Grandad Bluff. 

“I apologize to people that were not made aware earlier through the public meetings and the neighborhood association meetings,” Odegaard said. “That is a lesson this department has learned.”

Several homeowners, who live near the bluffs, claim they didn’t know about the trail plan — which will no longer be named Grandma’s Gateway — until a January park board meeting, where the idea of allowing access to the trail was discussed.

One question was whether the Mississippi Valley Conservancy had taken a stand on the trail project. 

Carol Abrahamzon of MVC said the organization neither supports nor opposes the plan for new recreational trails.

There was applause, and some expressions of thanks, from audience members for the parks department scheduling the meeting.