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Milford City Council Expresses Concerns Over Proposed Trail Crossing

November 13, 2024 Steve Schwaller

(Milford)– The city of Milford is at odds with the Dickinson County Trails board over plans to extend a recreational trail from that city south to Clay county. At issue is plans for the proposed trail to cross all four lanes of Highway 71 at the bottom of the hill just south of Milford. Mayor Steve Anderson says they have safety concerns over that…

“The D.O.T’s pretty much from what we understand is still not going to allow them to sign it, is not going to slow down the speed, and you’ve got a trail that is eventually going to cross four lanes of traffic with a median in there and traffic is supposed to be going 55 and they’re coming down the hill and the council just thinks it’s unsafe.”

Anderson says the city has been proposing an alternative route which they feel is much safer, but he says those discussions have gone nowhere…

“So the city is willing to pay for the trail to turn at sixth street and Q, go down to Highway 71, cross at the intersection, the lighted intersection, and then head down the west side of the highway to the city limits on the south end of town. We’ve talked about that, we’re still dedicated to doing that but it seems not right to do all that work and then have a trail that could be unsafe at the bottom of the hill, so.”

Anderson says the city council does have some pull in the discussions as they could threaten to withdraw the city’s support for some grants for the project…

“We don’t want to do this. I mean we feel like we helped the trails. They wanted to do a loop through town, down A-34. We’ve paved parts of that, the rest of it will get paved as part of this 13th Street project. We’ll get that through town and then the Trails Board can take it when it gets out into the county and go whichever direction they want. We’re willing to work with them, we’re willing to put money toward stuff. We just want to make sure everything is safe.”

In an email response to Anderson’s comments, Trails Director Erin Reed tells KUOO news their funding is pretty much tied to connecting the south end of the spine trail. She goes on to say the Trails Board is working with the Iowa Department of Transportation on looking for additional funding for a safer crossing such as tunnel in the future, but Reed says for now they need to move forward with the trail. She adds that if the city builds a trail south to the city limits, that the Trails Board is certainly open to connecting with that as well.

***NOTE: This is an update to the original story***

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