October 18, 2010

News Release
For Immediate Release

Contact: Harry Graves, Director

Johnson County Conservation Board
319-645-2315
hgraves@co.johnson.ia.us

Johnson County Conservation Board Receives Half Million Dollar Grant for Trail
Construction

The Johnson County Conservation Board’s (JCCB) application for $512,642.00 was the
largest of the County Conservation Grants awarded October 14 when the Iowa Natural
Resources Commission unanimously approved nearly $4 million in grants, from the
Resource Enhancement and Protection (REAP) Fund, to 23 communities and seven
county conservation Boards.

This grant will be used to leverage other funds for the construction of a hiking, walking,
biking trail along the north side of Clear Creek from Ireland Avenue in the City of Tiffin
to county road Half Moon Avenue.

Johnson County Conservation Director Harry Graves, author of the grant application,
said that the JCCB has long been interested in extending a trail to link the1,082-acre F.W.
Kent Park, located 3 miles west of Tiffin, IA, to connect with the trail systems of Tiffin,
Coralville and Iowa City to the east.

The proposed project, which was designed by VJ Engineering, Coralville, is a ten-foot-

wide Portland Concrete Cement (PCC) trail 6 inches thick. The trail will have two
bridges (one 30 feet and one 40 feet in length) constructed from recycled railroad flatcars,
and will be supported on piles or caissons.

Motorized vehicles will be prohibited on the trail and use will be limited to hiking,
walking and biking, with cross-country skiing and snowshoeing permitted in winter. The
proposed trail will run through a creek bottom timber, which contains 133 species of
plants.

Graves said this project constitutes the first leg of a trail that will eventually extend to
F.W. Kent Park. After much deliberation, the JCCB chose to pursue a phased approach
to trail construction, on the land that they already control, rather than wait until such time
as the entire route to Kent Park, along Clear Creek, could be acquired. This trail
segment, will connect with a trail that will be built in the City of Tiffin, which will
connect to the Clear Creek Trail from Coralville. The western terminus of this proposal
will be at county road, Half Moon Avenue, until additional properties can be acquired to
extend the trail on further west.

At the terminus with Half Moon Avenue, trail riders may elect to ride one half-mile north
to Highway 6 for the remaining two miles to Kent Park. Half Moon Avenue, from the
Clear Creek Area, to its junction with Highway 6will be chip sealed. The Iowa DOT
plans to resurface Highway 6 in 2011 and paved shoulders will be included.

Although the proposed trail route is within ½ mile of Interstate 80, where nine million
vehicles pass by every year, the wooded creek bottom timber - with it’s native flora and
fauna - provides a feeling of tranquility and muffles the roar from that highway. The
2009 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that more than one-half million people
live within a 50-mile radius of Kent Park and the proposed trail project will provide
connectivity for them to the greater trails network throughout the state.

“We are very excited about this project and look forward to the linking Kent Park, one
the premiere parks in the state, to the metro trail system of Iowa City Coralville.
Construction is slated to start in the fall of 2011,” said Graves.

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