The saga of the Francis Marion Trail Commission bill that was vetoed by Gov. Mark Sanford careened into the governor’s office Thursday, smoking from comments made by Sen. Hugh Leatherman.

Leatherman took Sanford to task for vetoing the bill.

“It would appear that the governor relishes and enjoys doing things that are detrimental to the Pee Dee section, one of South Carolina’s poorer sections of the state,” Leatherman said in Thursday’s Morning News.

Sanford said in a letter to members of the Senate that “I believe that this is a worthy project and one which will likely fare well in the grants process; however, I feel compelled to veto legislation that fragments state government and creates a new avenue for regional political favoritism.”

Sanford said the bill creates a legislatively driven commission solely for the purpose of developing one specific trail.

“This unnecessary state entity fragments the responsibility for trail planning that the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism currently fulfills in partnership with various private groups,” Sanford wrote. “Further, the legislation gives express statutory authority for the commission to recommend appropriations - increasing the likelihood that, as happened this year, specific trail projects will become line items in the appropriations act. I have consistently laid out that projects such as this should be funded through a competitive grants process to ensure that state dollars are awarded based on merit and not political sway.”

Sanford noted that the 2005-06 appropriations act included $110,000 for the project through Francis Marion University. But he contends the bill places the burden on the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tour-ism of staffing the commission and maintaining the trail.

“Therefore, in order to comply with these provisions, the agency would have to create a unique capacity for maintenance outside the borders of the state property and divert re-sources from our already maintenance deficient state parks,” he wrote. “Short of becoming the custodian for all of the thousands of miles of trails in South Carolina, PRT has historically done an exceptional job of partnering with private groups to support our state’s network of trails.

“As part of their existing trail program, PRT prioritizes projects through the State Trails Plan and solicits input from a variety of public and private entities and individuals to coordinate trail development. The agency also advises trail builders on the numerous state and federal grant programs that are available for these types of projects.”

Sanford said the project doesn’t require direct state appropriations or a legislatively ordained commission to be successful. He said other heritage tourism trail projects in the Pee Dee have been successful without a state statute governing their establishment.

Those he alluded to were The Cotton Trail and the Tobacco Trail. He said they “highlight the importance and cultural value of Pee Dee institutions.” And both projects, he added, were “borne of private volition and successful due to the hard work of dedicated supporters.”

The heritage trail is the brainchild of Florence attorney Ben Zeigler.

Zeigler said the bill provided that the chairman of PRT would be one of the voting members of the seven-member commission.

“This wasn’t just something that was thrown together,” Zeigler said. “A reasonable amount of research was done on this bill and an attempt made to model it on other successful historical/ tourism commissions.”

Zeigler referred to three commissions: Bicentennial (1976), Tricentennial (1970) and Hunley (1990s). He said each was created by a stand-alone commission.

“None were under PRT, and none had a voting member of PRT,” he said. “The idea of an independent commission is that the scope of this project involves much more than just parks and recreation. It involves historical and archeological resources, and there’s a significant highways component.

“There’s one focus to this project, and that’s creating this trail. PRT wouldn’t have covered everything, and the other in-stances where you’ve had these standalone commissions (Bicentennial, Tricentennial and Hunley) have been enormously successful. This is a well-accepted, tested model for getting something like this done.”

Zeigler said there is also a significant public access and public property component to it. Many of the sites will need to be developed into public parks, the advertisement of which will involve PRT’s marketing and coordination expertise.

“For that reason, the bill makes the director of PRT one of the seven voting members on the commission,” Zeigler said. “So that justification (the governor’s) doesn’t hold a lot of water.

“The structure of this commission and how it relates to other aspects of state government is by explicit design. This has a rhyme and a reason to it.”

Zeigler reiterated that no money is at stake in the bill because all it did was create a commission that could receive public and private funds. He said the money for the commission ($110,000) has been appropriated.

The trail would start at Fort Moultrie in Sullivans Island and follow U.S. 21 up through the Francis Marion National Forest, across the Black and Santee Rivers, and past the site of the Battle of Black Mungo into the lower part of Williamsburg County. It would continue through Lake City, Browntown and Johnsonville. It would end at the colonial plantations of Hopsewee and Hampton.

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