Joe Hanner has been the director of the Guthrie County Conservation Board for 21 years.

With such a long tenure as the leader of the organization, Hanner has helped bring many great projects and changes to Guthrie County through the years, but in particular, 2013 brought with it one of Hanner’s biggest highlights in recent memory.

“We had one major, major project–the largest project I’ve worked on come to fruition–and that was finishing the north loop of the Raccoon River Valley Trail.  That was a big project with multiple partners, multiple funding sources…that was a great one to get done with and now the public is really enjoying that facility.”

Hanner estimates that the total cost of the project was around $6 million, with the completion of the loop rolling through northeast Guthrie County.

With such a big project coming to completion in 2013, Hanner discusses what we can expect to see from the Conservation Board in the year ahead now that we’ve officially hit 2014.

“I’m looking at the fiscal year 2014-2015 as being kind of a general year.  Not many projects on the horizon of great scale and scope but that could change in the matter of a month or two, even a week or two.  But right now that’s our general thought process.”

Hanner says the Conservation Board’s first order of business in the spring will be completing an electrical upgrade at the Guthrie County Historical Village.

Hanner adds that working with the Historical Village Foundation to raise funds for the Pullman Train Car restoration project will be a point of emphasis from his department this year as well.