The Adel Chamber of Commerce is working on a project involving the Raccoon River Valley Trail, and they recently approached the City Council for some support.

At the most recent Council meeting, representatives of the Chamber’s Trail Committee presented a funding plan for the project, which included a few requests. The first was that the City apply to the Iowa Arts Council to be recertified as an Iowa Great Place. If the recertification is approved, it would open up a wide variety of grant opportunities that would help pay for the estimated $125,000 project. Second, the committee asked for a $10,000 contribution from the City, which would be paid out of the general fund. Lastly, the Chamber was hoping to simply get the blessing of the Council to proceed with the project.

The Council was amenable to each request and approved the application for the Iowa Great Places recertification and voiced their support. They also promised they would consider the funding request at the next meeting of the City’s budget committee. Chamber Director Deb Bengston said the committee has already allocated $10,000 of their own to the project, and they raised around $7,500 from the Sweet Corn Festival 5K. The trail project is threefold, including: lighting the bridge from Highway 169 to the Raccoon River along Highway 6; improving the landscape along the trail; and improving the welcome plaza, which would include some public artwork.

The Chamber has received the blessing from the Dallas County Conservation Board, which owns the RRVT, though the Board was firm in their request that none of the funding would come from them.