RACCOON RIVER VALLEY TRAIL ASSOCIATION

Posted Feb 23, 2006
9,050

A new organization has been formed to market and promote the Raccoon River Valley Trail in west central Iowa.

The Raccoon River Valley Trail Association, a non-profit membership group, will also facilitate tourism and economic development initiatives up and down the 17-year-old trail. It now stretches 56 miles from Jefferson on the north, to the Des Moines metro area on the southeast, and an 18-mile north loop through Perry is expected to be added in the next two to three years. The association has grown out of a task force of about 10 members that has been working for 16 months on several trail-related projects. Those include a specially-designed and coordinated new signage system, which is now out for bids, as well as encouraging the development of permanent restroom facilities and overnight accommodations in all the towns along the trail, even the smallest of them. "We think our association might be the first ever formed in the state to promote one specific trail," said Carla Offenburger, who was elected interim president when the group met last week in Panora. "You can think of it like a Chamber of Commerce for the whole Raccoon River Valley Trail." With the completion of the trail system into Des Moines, the number of annual users on the RRVT is expected to mushroom from its current 70,000 per year. "We've been studying other trails around the nation, to determine what kind of amenities the trail users really want," said Offenburger. "The one we've really modeled most of our ideas from is the Root River State Trail in southeast Minnesota, which is the economic engine that has built a $25 million per year tourism industry in Fillmore County, and that's a rural area in that state.' The RRVT is owned and managed by the Conservation Boards in Greene, Guthrie and Dallas Counties, and that will continue to be the case. The three county conservation directors - Dan Towers in Greene, Joe Hanner in Guthrie and Mike Wallace in Dallas - will serve as ex-officio members of the new RRVT Association board of directors. Other founding board members are trails advocates Carla and Chuck Offenburger of Cooper, Kevin Wilbeck of Rippey, Bill Wright of Panora, Jim Rose and Mark Rasmussen of Jefferson and others who have been asked but are not yet confirmed. Two others who serve as advisors are Chris Whitaker of Carroll, who works with the Region XII Council of Governments, and Cheri Ure of Jefferson who teaches at the Iowa State University College of Design. Clark Smith, Des Moines, who worked in economic development for 20-plus years with the State of Iowa and the utility Aquila, Inc., has been contracted to serve as the non-profit association's manager and consultant. Clark and his wife Lauren Smith operate the Butler House on Grand Bed & Breakfast on the west side of Des Moines, and it will be near the metro extension of the RRVT. The group will also launch a new Internet site www.RaccoonRiverValleyTrail.org early this spring, with complete information about the trail itself as well as attractions and businesses in the communities located on and near the trail. The association hired David Harrenstein of Lanesboro Web Management Group in Lanesboro, Minnesota, to develop that site. Harrenstein, a native Iowan, is webmaster of several sites affiliated with the Root River State Trail in Minnesota as well as RAGBRAI's site on the Internet. The RRVT Association has been launched with $3,000 in donations arranged by the conservation directors of the three counties along the trail. "We're now going to be working with communities all along the trail in the three counties, helping them to develop new businesses and attractions that will interest trail users and other tourists," said Carla Offenburger. "At the same time, we'll be promoting the trail with bicyclists and other recreation enthusiasts across the nation and around the world. We want to make it a real destination for trail users." She said the association "is really focused on maintaining an energetic and fast-moving pace, to get many of our ideas and plans in place for the upcoming biking season." She called it "a fun project that is a win-win situation for all who want to be a part of it." Trail links http://www.guthriecenter.com/gccb/trail.html http://www.inhf.org/graphics/trail_pdfs/raccoonriver.pdf