The Guthrie and Greene County Conservation boards have teamed up to garner a $150,000 matching grant from the Region XII Transportation Improvement Program. It will be used to pave Raccoon River Valley Trail crossings in both counties.

Guthrie County Conservation Director Joe Hanner says it’s an 80/20 matching grant, meaning the federal government pays for 80% of the cost and the Guthrie and Greene County Conservation boards will pay the remaining 20%. Hanner says the money won’t be available for nearly three years but there’s a lot of planning that needs to happen between now and then. “We’ll have to work through engineering firms and see where each county is at for their respective crossings that they’re developing, between now and then. Then, we’ll hire an engineering firm and go through quite a process and try to implement the plan when the money is available in a few years.”

Hanner says the Guthrie and Greene County Conservation boards hoped to increase their chances of receiving the grant by teaming up. “It’s a highly competitive process for grants. (Greene County Conservation Director) Dan (Towers) and I have worked together over the years in neighboring counties and just looked at it as a way to partner. Rather than one county applying, and the other county applying and competing against each other, we felt like if we could get organized, which we did, we would have a pretty solid application showing regional collaboration.”

Raccoon Valley Radio will provide periodical reports on this major project through its completion.