There is a portion of the Raccoon River Valley Trail in Greene County that one county official is trying to replace.

Greene County Conservation Director Tanner Scheuermann says the county conservation board is working with WHKS Engineering to work on designs to address a constant problem area on the trail.

“I know that a lot of people are aware from the city of Jefferson out to Winkleman Switch, which again is just south of kind of the Raccoon River Valley bottom, that’s all concrete and it’s in pretty good shape. But then beyond that it’s asphalt and not such great shape.”

Scheuermann explains that they have applied for grants to fund the replacement of that portion of trail to be concrete. He notes that one major grant came from Region XII Council of Governments of $1.4 million through the Transportation Alternatives Program as Greene County Conservation teamed up with Guthrie County Conservation for that application because the asphalt area extends into Guthrie County to Yale. 

Scheuermann says while other grants that they have applied for were not awarded this year, they are continuing to work on the project.

“Our conservation board just approved our engineering plan through WHKS to get a lot of engineering work done, a lot of the surveying and things like that, all of the work that needs to happen before we can start construction. So we’re hopeful that once funding is in place it’ll be shovel ready, we’re ready to get to work.”    

Scheuermann believes that the trail helps with tourism by bringing people from other communities to Jefferson, especially after the completion of the connector with the High Trestle Trail could bring even more people to Greene County.