Bummer! The U.S. Department of Transportation for now turns down the application by Dallas County officials, supported by many trail advocates, for $4 million in federal “TIGER” funds. A grant of that amount would have helped build a “connector trail” between the Raccoon River Valley Trail in Perry and the High Trestle Trail in Woodward. With project plans now in hand, hopefully other funding possibilities will materialize.
PERRY, Iowa, January 18, 2012 – Dallas County officials learned on Wednesday that their application for about $4 million in federal “TIGER” funds — which they planned to use to construct a 9-mile connecting trail between the Raccoon River Valley Trail and the High Trestle Trail — has been turned down.
“No TIGER grant,” Mike Wallace, the Dallas County Conservation director, wrote in a short note to other county officials. “It was worth trying, though.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced in Washington, D.C., that 46 transportation projects in 33 states and Puerto Rico will receive a total of $511 million in TIGER funding, but none of those projects are in Iowa. “TIGER” stands for “Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery.”
When Dallas County officials decided in mid October to apply for the grant, they had only days to complete an application and solicit letters of support from other interested communities, businesses and organizations. More than 130 of those letters were gathered in about three days’ time.
“We’re told this is a very competitive grant program,” Wallace in October, as he was completing the paperwork. “There will be applications for a lot of good projects around the country, but we think we’re making a pretty good case for our project.”
The Dallas County “connector” trail was envisioned as being built between Perry and Bouton, in conjunction with the paving of what is now a gravel road between those two towns. Perry is located at what could be described as the northeast “corner” of the Raccoon River Valley Trail, which will be 89 miles long once a new “north loop” is completed in 2012. From Bouton, the trail was to be built on the right-of-way of an already-paved county road that goes on east from Bouton to Woodward. The town of Woodward is the west trailhead of the High Trestle Trail, which is 25 miles long, stretches to Ankeny and includes the 13-story-high trestle bridge between Woodward and Madrid.
The trail was going to be built in the rights-of-way of both roads, but not on the shoulders right next to the road surface. Rather, the trail ‘s path was gong to be on the sides of ditches or on fencelines, so there would be separation between the paved road and the paved trail.
It is presumed that now, with those project plans still in hand, officials will continue looking for other funding possibilities.