TRIBE Trail Lands $100,000 Grant

Posted: May 9, 2019

    The TRIBE Trail’s second phase is definitely a go after committee members learned last week that the Wellmark Foundation has awarded the trail a $100,000 grant.

    That means the TRIBE Trail Committee has enough money to go ahead with the bidding process for Phase II of the trail that will run from Logan Street to Linn Avenue and cost about $625,000 to build.

    Committee member Megan Baltes said the committee had used the Wellmark grant in its preliminary calculations on how much money it had raised so “this is really big for us to have it secured and we’re very appreciative of the Wellmark Foundation’s belief in our project.”

    Along with grants from the Iowa Department of Transportation, the Black Hawk Gaming Association, the Chickasaw County Community Foundation and Wellmark, the committee has also received about $249,000 in private donations to help fund Phase II of the trail that will eventually connect trails in Mikkelson Park and the city’s west-side Industrial Park.

    Because the Iowa Department of Transportation’s grant comes from its Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) that is funded by federal dollars, the committee must bid out Phase II of the project.

    Baltes and fellow TRIBE Trail Committee member Rick Kramer expect to bid the project in June and work will begin sometime this August and be completed by the fall.

    Phase I of the TRIBE Trail runs from Mikkelson Park through the Boy Scout Playground, down Fourth Avenue and through Garnant Park and was built in the fall of 2017.

    Article courtesy of: Bob Fenske, editor@nhtrib.com