Sauk County Board chair Marty Krueger also serves as chair of the Great Sauk Trail Commission, which formed in January to work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to oversee the planning and development of the trail.

The commission is expected to determine the various uses of the trail, what type of surface will be installed and what types of amenities will be included along the route in the next few months.

“The dominoes can start to fall, including the agreement between the DOT and the DNR to take over the rail bed and use it as a trail, down to the actual removal of the tracks,” Krueger said. “This can have a huge economic impact on this county in the future. After we extend and connect with Baraboo, we can have a world class trail and hook up with the 400 Trail and the Elroy-Sparta Trail in this county.”

Krueger was instrumental in lobbying for the purchase, starting back in the late 1980s when he was mayor of Reedsburg, a city with a manufacturing base of seven industries that rely on rail for freight transportation.

Krueger said Seneca Foods in Baraboo has also expressed a need for rail shipping.