Waggoner’s $22,000 Trail Reimbursement Stalls Over How to Pay It

Article Summary: The Village of Waggoner’s request for a $22,000 payment promised in a February 2025 intergovernmental agreement remained unpaid after Tuesday’s Montgomery County Board meeting, with the Finance & Budget Committee having rejected the voucher in favor of paying a contractor directly and board member Jeremy Jones asking the committee to reconsider.

Green Diamond Bike Trail Key Points:

Waggoner has requested the $22,000 promised as a reimbursement for oil and chip in a February 2025 intergovernmental agreement.

The Development & Personnel Committee recommended requesting that the payment be made from Coal Fund 375.

The Finance & Budget Committee rejected the $22,000 voucher, preferring to pay the contractor directly.

Jones said the village, with a $60,000 annual budget, cannot afford to repair the trail before oiling and chipping, and asked the committee to reconsider.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY — A $22,000 payment the county promised the Village of Waggoner nearly a year and a half ago went unpaid again Tuesday, July 14, 2026, as two Montgomery County Board committees reported opposite conclusions about how — and whether — to send it.

Development & Personnel Committee Chairman Chad Ruppert reported on the survey and transfer of the remaining Green Diamond Bike Trail property to the Village of Waggoner, which has requested the $22,000 payment for oil and chip promised as a reimbursement in a February 2025 intergovernmental agreement.

After discussing the village’s difficulty in paying for the oil and chip in advance, Ruppert said, his committee recommended requesting that the payment be made from Coal Fund 375, and added that the discussion will continue.

By the time the Finance & Budget Committee reported later in the meeting, that recommendation had been turned down. Committee Chairwoman Connie Beck reported that the committee rejected a $22,000 voucher to the Village of Waggoner for oiling and chipping the Green Diamond Trail, voicing a preference to pay the contractor directly.

A Village Budget of $60,000

Board member Jeremy Jones pushed back from the floor.

Jones said that with a budget of $60,000 per year, the village cannot afford to repair the trail before oiling and chipping, and he requested that the committee reconsider its decision.

The minutes record no vote on the reconsideration request and no resolution of the dispute. The $22,000 does not appear on the list of Fund 375 vouchers the board approved unanimously later in the meeting.

The practical difference between the two committees’ positions is significant for a village of Waggoner’s size. Under a reimbursement, the village would have to front the cost of the work and be repaid afterward; if the county pays the contractor directly, no village money moves at all. Jones’s point was that the first option is beyond the village’s means.

The Trail Transfer Itself

The property transfer that produced the obligation is nearing completion. Ruppert reported on the survey and transfer of the remaining trail property to Waggoner. A $3,000 payment to Nail Land Surveying of Litchfield appears on the Fund 375 voucher list the board approved Tuesday; the surveyor prepared a plat of a former railroad right-of-way parcel for the county earlier this summer.

The February 2025 intergovernmental agreement itself has not been obtained by this newsroom, and the minutes do not describe its terms beyond the $22,000 reimbursement promise. Nor do they say whether the trail property has actually been deeded to the village or whether the transfer is still pending — county records have described the step both ways in recent months.