The Iowa Transportation Commission, an administrative division of the Iowa Department of Transportation, announced Tuesday a $201,618 State Recreational Trails grant for the Raccoon River Valley Trail to High Trestle Trail connector project.
The Dallas County Conservation Board’s connector project was one of five projects approved for about $1 million in State Recreational Trails Program funding. The state funding for the RRVT-HTT connector will be combined with a recent Federal Recreational Trail Grant of $328,175 and applied to Phase IV construction of the project.
The Phase IV funds may be used, along with Phase III funds, for construction in 2021. Phase III will pave another one-mile section of trail westward from Woodward, and Phase IV will continue the eastward construction of the trail from Perry to M Avenue.
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Moving forward, the Dallas County Conservation Board still needs essential private and corporate donations to make this overall $5 million to $6 million project a reality. Private and corporate donations are used as matching dollars for the state and federal grants.