The Dallas County Conservation Board will meet Thursday to gather
public input regarding the various options in connecting the Raccoon
River Valley Trail to the High Trestle Trail.
The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Waukee Schools Administration Building.
The trails currently sit nine miles apart and the board wants to change that.
Mike Wallace is the executive director for the Dallas County
Conservation Board and he knows that connecting the two trails is going
to take some collaborative work.
“Now that the Raccoon River trail is in Perry it’s a logical
connection but the real reason it hasn’t been doneyet is because it’s
like a big puzzle,” Wallace said. “There are lots of different land
owners and everyone has to be contacted. We’ll visit with them and try
to figure out a route. It’s just a matter of getting people that will
cooperate with us.”
Another issue with the proposed trail is finding a suitable route.
Bike trails in the area like to build along abandoned railroad beds but
that is not an option.
The
section of abandoned railroad bed between Perry and Woodward was sold
long ago to private landowners and can’t be recovered, but the demand to
join the trails is higher than ever and the Dallas County Conservation
Board has a plan to get the job done.
The board hopes that the potential of an economic boost for the area will get landowners to agree to something quickly.
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