Some concerns about the 28E agreement for the Iowa River Railroad Bike Trail were addressed at Monday night's city council meeting.

Terry Briggs, with the Iowa Valley Bicycle Club, spoke about issues brought up over the sharing agreement. Briggs is among local bicycling enthusiast that formed Trail Resource and Land Stewards (TRAILS) Inc.

"This agreement was developed through the joint efforts of Curt Ward, the city attorney, and members and board of directors of Trails incorporated," Briggs said. "It has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of Trails and we do think it answers some concerns that were brought up during the council meeting."

Briggs said there were two main concerns brought up.

"One of those concerns were that the trails board could use funds which would be donated to trails by individuals for purposes other than what was intended," Briggs said. "We feel that paragraph nine really eliminates that concern."

Briggs said the next concern was about additional costs.

"The next concern was that the city could incur some increase costs through liability insurance, through Park and Rec department," Briggs said. "This again is addressed under paragraph seven, in that, the trails committee is planning on purchasing our own liability insurance. We worked through Park and Rec and through (its) insurance agent for Park and Rec and we do plan on, as I mentioned, purchasing our own insurance and we actually will name the city as an additional insured."

Briggs said the 28E agreement has not been signed by the county supervisors but he anticipates it will be done in the near future.

By its next meeting, the council hopes to know more about the costs and grants for the trail so a final decision can be made.

The council previously approved assuming ownership of 12 miles of old railroad corridor. The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation wanted to acquire the land to connect to another segment of bike trail that reaches to Steamboat Rock but needed a public entity to sponsor the purchase.

Although the council voted to acquire the land to be used for the trail, it placed a stipulation on ownership: the city would not be responsible for the corridor's maintenance. The city wanted to see a nonprofit mobilize to cover those maintenance costs, hence the creation of TRAILS, Inc.