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Saying the "Stars are aligned" and emphasizing time is of the essense, Rachel Garst of Creating Great Places, Coon Rapids, Tuesday appealed the Guthrie County board of supervisors to let her apply (in the county's name) for federal earmarks to finance planning and design of a recreation trail across the northern part of the county.
The idea is to connect the existing Raccoon River Valley Trail with Whiterock Conservancy, via a 17.5 mile trail extension running from Herndon through Bagley and Bayard to Coon Rapids.
Garst first pitched the idea last year and said, "Our Great Place group has made progress over the last year in figuring out the right-of-way, building federal support, and budgeting. The current budget is $7.5 million, so it is obviously a long term project. Most of this funding would be federal, with up to $1.5 million non-federal match required, and much of this match could be secured from DOT and other sources."
Garst said she just found out earmark proposals to U.S. Senators Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin are due this week. For that reason, she asked the supervisors to make a decision Thursday whether they would allow her to assist the county in obtaining up to $500,000 federal dollars for initial right-of-way (ROW) acquisition and engineering.
No monetary commitment is required of the county to begin the fund raising process. However, the Guthrie County Conservation Board and the supervisors appear unsure if they want more trails or not as they ultimately would be required to maintain them.
Garst said the proposed Corn Diplomacy Trail could have national significance as the American Discovery Trail is mapped just a couple of miles away in southern Greene County and the route could be changed.
A group known as Shipper's Consortium owns 7.2 miles and 87 acres along the proposed route and is willing to donate it for the project. The land is valued at $5,700 an acre for a total of $495,900.
This land can be pledged toward matching funds for earmarks. Initially, Garst is seeking $500,000 and will use $100,000 of the land value as a 20 percent match. She indicated if the money is received it would be almost enough to secure most of the right-of-way or start more detailed engineering design.
In addition to earmarks from Iowa Senators, Garst indicated more federal funds may be available this year through Federal Highway Authorization which is allotted every five years.
Garst believes such a trail would add tremendous recreational and economic development potential to northern Guthrie County, and help Herndon, Bagley, Bayard, and Coon Rapids. She paid for a study of the projected economic impact of all Coon Rapids-Whiterock Great Place investments to date, and then specifically of this proposed trail. Economist Dan Otto predicts that, apart from construction impact, adding this trail link from Coon Rapids to Herndon would add an extra annual $1 million of sales, $200,000 of income, and 12 jobs.
Whiterock Conservancy the past year received a $380,000 earmark to build an internal sustainable trail system for mountain bike and equestrian use. Vision Iowa granted Coon Rapids $1.7 million for its Great Places project. This fall Coon Rapids will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the visit of Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev to the Garst Farm which is seeking national historic designation. All these things are making northwest Guthrie County a destination place and one that would benefit from recreation trail expansion, Garst commented.
"I know this sounds ambitious. But, is Guthrie County willing to have additional trail development? I think this project is very do-able, and I'm willing to make it painless for the county. Hopefully, you'll give me permission to submit earmark requests," she concluded.
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©Guthrie Center Times 2013
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