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By KILEY MILLER
kmiller@thehawkeye.com
Linn County blazed the trail. Can Des Moines County follow the markers?
Steve Swenson, who manages 26 miles of the Cedar Valley Nature Trail for the Linn County Conservation Board, described the peaks and valleys of public bike trails Monday at a meeting of the Des Moines County Trail Advisory Committee.
Des Moines County and the city of Burlington are on the hook to build a trail linking the downtown riverfront with Big Hollow Recreational Area, after winning over $500,000 for the project from the Vision Iowa program.
The county supervisors already have tagged $375,000 for the trail.
Tentative plans — and advisory committee members emphasize "tentative" — would send bicyclists rolling west from the city limits through the Starr's Cave nature area and under U.S. 61 before turning north to Big Hollow.
The route covers about 15 miles along and over ground belonging to about 40 property owners.
Most of those folks already have been contacted by trail planners, and several were in the small crowd listening as Swenson gave the low–down on running a trail.
The Cedar Valley Nature Trail stretches 51 miles from Hiawatha to just south of Waterloo, most of it along an abandoned railroad.
Back in the early 1980s when it was built, "there was a lot of controversy, a lot of fear about trails," Swenson explained.
"We hope you can learn from our mistakes," he said.
Of course, signs of all sorts help cut down on the big, bad nemesis of public recreation projects — liability.
"We're very liability conscious," Swenson said. "We've been sued a couple of times."
Des Moines County is still a long way from those kind of problems.
Kent Rice of consulting firm French–Reneker Associates said the goal is to have the county chunk of the trail by 2008.
To that, Mike Norris of the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission added the effort would move forward in three stages as money came available.
"It's an aggressive schedule to get the project done in time," Rice said.
The advisory committee envisions a path 10 feet wide, with another 10 feet of right of way on both sides. The surface would be chipped rock, with asphalt in certain areas.
But before construction can begin, the route must be finalized.
That means reaching agreements with adjacent property owners. All of them. The county won't use eminent domain to capture land for the trail, Norris said.
Based on their tone, the people who dominated Monday's question–and–answer session oppose the project.
Concerns ranged from whether hunting would be permitted along the trail to who would pay to repair damage to the surface caused by farm vehicles.
One man asked what impact the trail might have on a property's eligibility for the federal Conservation Reserve Program, while another wondered whether horses could use the trail or the adjacent right of way.
Horses are not permitted on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, Swenson said, because their hooves tear up the surface.
Most of the other questions brought a "we're not sure yet," from Norris.
Backers believe the trail would stir up customers for area stores, restaurants and hotels. Swenson estimates his section of the Cedar Valley trail gets 100,000 visitors a year, although most — about 80 percent — are locals.
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Source: http://www.thehawkeye.com/daily/stories/ln11_0808.html
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