Don't let trail grant idea die!

I drove to Audubon Tuesday and, as usual, saw several bikers and walkers out using the T-Bone trail from the interstate all the way to Exira. (photo from Audubon County website). Work has also been done preparing the section from Exira north to Hamlin, it looks like that will be done this spring or summer.
While it’s great that the T-Bone trail continues to grow in both length and popularity, it’s frustrating that residents of Atlantic must still travel out into the country, along gravel roads, to connect to the trial.
Efforts are being made to bring the trail into Atlantic through the efforts of a joint city-county committee, most likely along the railroad right-of-way north of Atlantic and into the quarry from the north along Buck Creek Road.
But that plan suffered a setback when a county grant application was recently turned town by the technical committee in charge of reviewing the grant requests and passing them on for possible approval.
The $25,000 grant would have come from the Department of Transportation and be funded through stimulus money. The problem, I’m told, is that the grant included money for an evaluation by an bridge engineer of the Fair River Road bridge over the Nishnabotna River as to the suitability for converting it into a pedestrian bridge. The bridge was being considered as part of “spur” off the main trail. It was the main trail the committee was concerned about, which was also addressed, but not the exclusive in the application.
But all hope may not be lost.
The money to fund this study was from the same pot that the city of Atlantic is using to fund the repair of a small bridge on Nishna Street. That project was generously estimated to cost around $300,000. But last week the city council agreed to proceed with a much cheaper repair option that would cost in the neighborhood of $70,000. That leaves $230,000 that will be returned to the pot.
Money that could be used to fund the part of original grant for a comprehensive study that will identify the best options to move forward to connect the trail to Atlantic and include evaluations of the ownership of property and the availability of easements as well as issues of grade and pedestrian safety. With perhaps a little extra thrown in for actually acquiring some of the right-of-way and building a trail.
Under the original grant the county was required to contribute 20 percent from local funds and officials from the Nishna Valley Trail group, had committed $3,500 of the $5,000 local match. The bigger the grant, the bigger the local match which will be an issue the county will have to consider.
The importance of recreational facilities, including trails, in communities has been well documented. And with city and county officials working together as they are, and with federal and state stimulus money sitting on the table, is there any reason why real progress shouldn’t be made. We may not get another opportunity like this.
I hope county officials will consider reapplying for the grant and, if possible, expanding the scope to include progress beyond the study stage. It’s important that the grant set back be seen as a speed bump along the way rather than a stop sign.