The Wiese Park Trail improvement project was given the green light at the most recent Perry City Council meeting, and work will begin soon.

The Council has been discussing the project for around a month. Some Council members have voiced safety concerns for the multi-purpose trails, particularly when it comes to how well walkers and bicyclists will share the widened paths. City Administrator Sven Peterson calmed many fears and emphasized that the current project is no different than prior ones in the park. “As far as this project goes, it’s really just considered a normal maintenance project in Wiese Park. If you’ve been out there, you’ll see that about two-thirds of the way of what we call ‘the backbone trail’ has already been replaced. And this is just finishing that up, and then we’ll start working on that loop around on the east end of the park.”

The City received several bids for the project, and most were well below the engineer’s estimate. The low bid belonged to Landals Corporation of Perry, who offered to do the job for $42,555, nearly 40% under the estimate. Peterson said the low price will allow the City to use funds allocated to improve other parts of the trail. “An important note on this project is that the Wiese Foundation actually gifts the park money every year. And that’s the money that’s going into this trail. We’re very lucky to have the Wiese Foundation support. So huge thank you to the Wiese Foundation for continued support of keeping up such a great asset the City has.”

There’s no exact timetable for completion of the project at the moment, but Peterson says work should begin this spring, likely when the weather improves.