A dozen individuals got the opportunity to learn and discuss options to connect the City of Jefferson’s parks and school buildings into a unified system last week.

Fourth year Iowa State University Landscape Architecture and Community and Regional Planning student Zoey Mauck led the initial presentation. She talked about some of her observations from the previous two trips she made to Jefferson. She also presented what she thought were some barriers to overcome to connect the City’s six parks and three school buildings. Some of the barriers were gravel paths by the Raccoon River Valley Trail, crossing busy streets like Elm Street and several areas of town that didn’t have sidewalks.

Her proposal included adding sidewalks in four areas of town including: Daubendiek Park, by the high school and two sidewalks by Head Park. She also suggested adding more bike racks at the high school and including bike wrenches where cyclists could air up their tires or use tools to make quick repairs.

At the end of the discussion, attendees gave feedback by voting for their favorite of eight proposed options for walking and biking paths.

Mauck will hold another public meeting early next month, and will make a final presentation in late November.