The Whiterock Conservancy backcountry trail project outside of Coon Rapids looks to officially be a go.

Conrad Kramer and members of the Whiterock Conservancy stepped in front of the Vision Iowa review committee on Wednesday morning to give an update on their CAT grant application, and upon completing the update, the committee surprisingly motioned to approve the grant.

The CAT grant will provide Whiterock with over $400,000 in financing for the trail project, and Vision Iowa’s decision ends a nearly five-year fundraising effort for Kramer.

“We’re very pleased, very excited.  It’s not quite a done deal yet, the Vision Iowa Board does  need to formally approve our grant early next month, but I have to admit, we’re starting to celebrate.”

After the Guthrie County Board of Supervisors nixed giving additional pledge funds to Whiterock two weeks ago, Kramer received some of the local help he was looking for recently from development groups in Guthrie County.  The Panora Area Development Group and the Guthrie Center Development Group both pledged $1,000, and Whiterock was also awarded a $5,000 mini-grant from the Guthrie County Community Foundation.

Kramer believes the late support from local entities ultimately put Whiterock’s application over the top with the Vision Iowa Board.

He also believes the new 35-mile trail project will be great for businesses all around Guthrie County.

“There is not another state park in the state that fails to bring in less than 50,000 people and we’re gonna be the third largest park in the state, so you know, it’s hard to see how we wouldn’t have a huge economic impact on Guthrie County.  We don’t want to make any hard claims, but the least we can say is there’s gonna be a very significant economic impact in the four-county region.”

Whiterock will break ground on the trail project next summer, and the new park will likely be opened to the public sometime in the spring of 2015.