Trail riders group withdraws support for Talladega park

A group which has been a driving force in the Talladega TOP trails project has suspended their support of the project after the tops trails boards attorney sent a termination agreement to C.D. Roberts Associates, Inc..   Members of the Cheaha Trail Riders issued a letter to Roberts’ firm suspending their support of the project and canceling a volunteer workday that had been planned for Saturday.   Roberts’ firm is the Professional Services Group hired to develop the park about 20 months ago. In the letter, members of Cheaha Trail Riders said their allegiance is to the PSG because of its vision for the park. Their disagreement is with actions of the board. The letter sent by the trail riders group stated that with all that they have seen and heard about how a few members of the Board of Directors have treated PSG and how the Board seems to have stalled production and the visionary spirit of the Park, they regretfully decline to support these ... ‘misguided’ efforts of the board.  The letter states assistance from the group for the park accounted for more than $100,000 in volunteer hours, equipment usage and mileage, which have been used as matching funds toward grant fulfillment. It also states the first Recreational Trails Program grant obtained for the park was acquired by the club, which amounted to a $980,000 contract.  Volunteer work at the park is assigned a dollar amount and counts as in-kind contributions that are counted as matching funds when requesting funds through grant awards.  The club pointed out two possible problems with future grant applications as a result of their action. One is the portion of a grant application, which asks about working relations with volunteer groups.   The other is the claim that a member of the Cheaha Trail Riders is “the longest standing member on the ADECA Recreational Trails Advisory Board. The RTAB are the ones who grade many of the RTP grant applications.”