(Spirit Lake)– A recreational trail connecting Dickinson county with Clay county took a big step forward today. The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors approved a bid for the first phase of the Clay County Connection project. The low bid of $893,410 was awarded to Beck Excavating and is a little more than $100,000 below the engineer’s estimate.
Erin Reed of Dickinson County Trails says the first phase is one and-a-half miles long from Milford south. Construction is set to begin this coming spring. Reed says funding is already coming together for the next two phases…
“On another note we were recommended for a state Rec Trails Grant for $520,000 last month. The Transportation Commission will approve that today. So that’s for phase two, the next two miles of this trail. And our goal would be with state funds it’s a lot easier to get through the process. Our goal is to build that next year as well so we’ll be able to get three and-a-half miles done.”
Reed says they’re looking into other funding possibilities for the remainder after that…
“We meet on Friday. We’re going to discuss our development plan on Friday and so we’ll probably go after in some fashion we’ll go after Okoboji Foundation funding. Typically that can run around 75 to 100,000, so that will add to it. Then we’re also going to go for Destination Iowa funding again, and in that aspect I would go for all three phases of funding because they like bigger projects and that we can get like up to 25 percent on the whole works which would be like another 900,000.”
Construction on the Clay county portion of the trail is currently underway, working north from Fostoria.
