The City of Perry has been selected by the Iowa Department of Transportation’s department of Traffic and Safety to receive a grant to make changes to a frequently traveled intersection.
City Administrator Butch Niebuhr says the funds are for changes to the intersection of 1st Avenue, or Highway 144 and Willis Avenue in Perry.
“What it will do is, it will be an application for a four lane to three lane conversion on 1st Avenue, it’s already a three lane on Willis with a turning lane, and then new signal upgrades which will have a signal and also pedestrian countdowns” says Niebuhr.
Perry will receive the full requested amount of $380,000 and Niebuhr says the primary goal is safety.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to do some stuff to make it safer in that area, not only for pedestrians to our downtown who park in that public parking lot but for the bicycle traffic we have going through. That’s one of the intersections for the Raccoon River Valley Trail and the in town trail goes through that intersection.”
Niebuhr says work done by city engineers with Bolton and Menk and Chief Vaughn at the Perry Police Department make a big impact in helping to make the grant application successful.