EDITORIAL: LIPA and Suffolk, forge that trail agreement already

Any day, the weather could settle down and remain perfect for biking and hiking. So it's disappointing that a final agreement between the Long Island Power Authority and Suffolk County on a 13-mile trail from Port Jefferson to Wading River remains elusive. It'd be a shame if another summer passed without it.

This idea, now nearly nine years old, came from private citizens. But it needs a lease agreement between LIPA, which owns the former LIRR right-of-way, and Suffolk, which would disburse the federal money to pay for the trail.

One impediment was liability: Who would pay if someone got hurt there? That was solved. The current snarl is this: If LIPA needs to do work on this right-of-way in the future to transmit power, it might have to disturb the trail. But Suffolk believes that agreeing to a potential disruption of the trail complicates its access to federal funds. Besides, the county wants an agreement that, if the trail does have to be disturbed and repaired, the county won't have to pay for that work.

So, at a time when so many complex state and national issues seem stuck in gridlock, it's frustrating that we can't even agree on a simple bike-and-hike trail. There's a summit on it this week. A word of advice: Don't fail the trail. hN