Cedar Valley - Meyers Lake trail loop in place

Sun September 10 2006
Posted Sep 10, 2006
6,732

By PAT KINNEY, Courier Business Editor EVANSDALE --- A recreational trail loop around Meyers Lake, some 15 years in the making, is now essentially complete. The city has finished about a two-mile loop around the lake, connecting it with the larger Cedar Valley trails system and the Cedar Valley Nature Trail between Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, Mayor John Mardis said. The earliest portions of the trail, between the lake and Interstate 380/U.S. Highway 20, were completed in the early 1990s, Mardis said. The city earlier this summer let a $90,000 project to finish the trail loop, connecting it with a north-south Evansdale nature trail to the east and an existing trail on Gilbert Drive, connecting back to the entrance into Exchange Park at the lake's north end. The city worked out agreements over time with private property owners in the area to make the loop possible. "This had a lot of support. It's already getting quite a bit of use," Mardis said. Final payments are pending to the contractor performing the project, Peterson Contractors Inc. of Reinbeck, Mardis said. The City Council authorized one of those payments Tuesday night. Eighty percent of the project cost was paid for with federal highway "enhancement" funds allocated through the Black Hawk County Metropolitan Area Transportation Policy Board, Mardis said. Twenty percent of the project is paid for with local option sales tax funds. In other business, the Evansdale council this week approved a contract with PCI for road and other infrastructure improvements in the city's industrial park, opening up more area there for development. PCI was the apparent low bidder on the project, at about $239,320, under the project estimate of $320,000. Some of that work is expected to begin this fall, weather permitting. Some of the project would be paid for through tax increment financing, and the city also is seeking a state grant of Revitalize Iowa's Sound Economy, or RISE, funds toward the road work. Also, the council approved payment of $4,200 toward a pedestrian/bike trail extension on the Lafayette Road bridge between Evansdale and Elk Run Heights. Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com