The Dallas County Board of Supervisors recently approved American Rescue Plan Act funding that will go toward projects on a popular and local trail. 

The Board approved the allocation of $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding that will go toward the Raccoon River Valley Trail to High Trestle Trail connector and the South Loop Trail Bridge Rehab projects. Dallas County Supervisor Mark Hanson talks about the decision for the allocation of the funding. 

“It’s really a great day for the citizens of Dallas County to have these resources that can go to a very worthy project that will hopefully stay in existence for a long time. You build it, you have to maintain it too so that takes personnel and cost to maintain something that you’ve built. We are cautious of how we approach it but we felt it was really the right use of the money at this time.”

Dallas County Conservation Director Mike Wallace tells Raccoon Valley Radio the funding will help leverage existing funds that have already been raised and will help with future grants. Wallace says the projects are important ones for the trail.

“Well, I would say in Central Iowa the two biggest main attraction trail systems we have are the High Trestle Trail and the Raccoon River Valley Trail so obviously getting the connector done, which in essence is an extension of the High Trestle Trail to the town of Perry, you are combining both of the two most popular trails and with that comes the trail users. So, a lot more trail users will be utilizing the various communities from both trail systems now because there is no longer a gap.”

For more information on the Raccoon River Valley Trail you can go here.