Board to ramp up marketing for Weiser River Trail New website is ‘intuitive and user friendly’

by Philip A. Janquart

 Since 1997, the Weiser River Trail has served as an attraction for visitors from all over the Treasure Valley and beyond.

 The trail was a rail line before Union Pacific Railroad removed the tracks and turned it over to Friends of the Weiser River Trail (FWRT) in 1996. In 1997, it became the longest rail-trail in the state, beginning in Weiser and winding north for 84 miles, just short of New Meadows.

 It has also served as an important cog in the economic livelihood of the communities it skirts.

Recently, FWRT, the nonprofit that manages and maintains the trail, began a campaign to better market one of southwest Idaho’s most accessible and aesthetically pleasing recreational opportunities. It all started with a revamp of the group’s website, a project that took about six weeks to complete.

 “I think it’s awesome,” said FWRT President Pat Trainor. “I just couldn’t be more tickled because the website is intuitive and user friendly. If you need to find something, it’s easy to find and it actually has more information, with links to that information.”

 You can see the new website by visiting www.weiserrivertrail.com.

 Funds for the effort came from a subgrant originating out of a grant awarded to the McCall Area Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Bureau by the Idaho Travel Council under the Idaho Department of Commerce’s Idaho Regional Travel and Convention Grant Program. 

 Created in 1981, the program is funded through a 2 percent tax on the sale of hotels, motels, vacation rentals, and private campground accommodations. Idaho Commerce’s mission is, in part, to help grow Idaho’s economy by supporting and expanding tourism and recreation industries.

 FWRT received a $7,500 subgrant from the McCall Chamber that required a 12.5 percent match for a total of $8,450. The McCall Chamber must approve all expenses.

 “The McCall Chamber is a nonprofit and they are fully funded by grants, and one of their big grants is through the Idaho Travel Council,” explained Diedre Roundtree, of Diedre B Marketing, LLC in McCall, who was hired by FWRT to build the new website. “Within that grant, they are allowed to do subgrants for other little committees that help them advertise and so the grant is pretty much about advertising and helping travel in the State of Idaho.”

 The funds will also be used for other marketing efforts for the trail, including advertisements, video, and social media, components Roundtree will be initiating and overseeing.

 “We need to integrate more into the real world, like giving people a way to pay for t-shirts, hats, and trail guides online, getting PayPal up to speed and having a mechanism to do those things,” Trainor said. “We are wanting to step forward into the modern world. A lot of our trail users are younger than us. They are going to websites and social media to check things out.”

 Previously, the FWRT has only been able to sell merchandise at stands during area events, which has limited sales that could help support the nonprofit’s efforts to continue maintaining the trail.

 The trail has become an important economic factor in the communities of Weiser, Midvale, Cambridge, Council, and New Meadows.

 “I’m pretty adamant that it brings a lot of money to each of the communities, and they are really supportive of the trail,” Trainor said. “There are studies, that I can’t name off the top of my head, but it shows a significant amount of income generated from the use of these trails.”

 He added that FWRT is working with the state to try to get the trail extended into New Meadows. Currently, the trail ends at the West Pine Sub-Division.

 In 2005, J.I. Morgan, Inc. of New Meadows constructed and turned over to FWRT 1.5 miles of trail through their West Pine Subdivision, leaving only about 3.5 miles to go.

 “New Meadows is very supportive of us trying to get the trail extended to their community,” said Trainor, who has been involved with the trail since its inception in 1996. “Those tracks, which was a Union Pacific line, went all the way from Weiser to New Meadows. Our original goal was to go from depot to depot.”

Trestle repair

 One of the latest developments with the trail itself is the repair of the Lortz Trestle, which Trainor said has been out of commission since 2019 when the river experienced its second highest flow on record.

 “A spring flood washed out some supports,” he said. “It took a while to get a grant from the state and, of course, in between what we applied for and when the actual work was done, the cost went up over $30,000. But we got enough individual people putting in donations earmarked specifically for the trestle, and we were able to absorb that without any problem.”

 Trainor said the original construction cost was $136,014 in 2019 but rose to $169,000 in 2021.

 The same trestle was damaged during an earlier flood in 1997 when the river experienced its highest historic flow.

 “After the 2019 failure, the Trail, in cooperation with Adams County, incorporated a bypass around the trestle, using the County Road as an alternate route,” according to a historical statement written by Trainor. 

 Construction was delayed until November 2021 due to supply delays of the trestle’s steel girders. Work started on Nov. 29, 2021, and was completed Dec. 14, 2021, with the new handrails installed the following week.

 “Most importantly, I wish to take time to thank the many folks who donated specifically to the repairs of the Lortz Trestle. We had five donations of $1,000. However, the majority of the donations were $200 or less. The total donations came to almost $70,000. With these generous gifts, we were able to absorb the outrageous increase in material costs and help with the grant matching fund.”