A local trail advocate received prestigious award.

Greene County resident Chuck Offenburger was recently recognized with an award for his efforts and work on bike trails in Iowa and specifically on the Raccoon River Valley Trail at a nine state conference in Illinois sponsored by the National Parks Association.

Offenburger was nominated by the Iowa Department of Transportation who he’s worked closely with since 1985 to help build what was a 39-mile bike trail and now includes 89 paved miles all the way down to Des Moines.

He talks about what his award means not only for him but for his work with RRVT.

“I’m especially grateful because I think it salutes that whole Raccoon River Valley Trail.  We’ve had a tremendous success on that in recent years.  Been a lot of fun doing it and a lot of people are very aware of it now and all over the United States actually.”

A pioneer in helping to build trails across the state, Offenburger along with his wife Carla, created the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association which is made up of people from the three counties that the RRVT is on with Greene, Guthrie and Dallas.

Now that the Board has gotten to a point that Offenburger feels is in good hands, he will be stepping down as a board member but will continue to be a part of the trail, where his true love resides.