Extension planned for Newton’s hike and bike trail

The Newton Park Board approved two city projects and discussed other potential plans for the months ahead at its meeting Wednesday night at Newton City Hall.

Public Works Director Keith Laube presented two projects to the board.

First was the extension of the city hike and bike trail system west along North 11th Avenue East and north on East Eighth Street North to Woodland Park.

The hike and bike trail will be a duel purpose path throughout most of the extension, however, due to a railroad crossing, the trail will split for a portion of the road along East Eighth Street North. At the railroad crossing, the signed bike trail would move to the street for a short distance because of railroad crossing construction limitations. An additional sidewalk would be built along the east side of East Eighth Street North.

The two trails would combine again on East Eighth Street North before leading into the southeast side entrance to Woodland Park.

“This is the best we came up with if we want to have a hike and bike trail,” Laube said.

The hike and bike trail design is a continuation of the comprehensive bike trail plan and would connect Agnes Patterson Park to Woodland Park.

“The idea when this was drawn up is we wanted to link our parks together and have a circle around the city,” Laube said.

Transportation enhancement funds were set aside two years ago from an awarded hike and bike trail project grant.

The board approved the plan presented.

The design will be submitted to the Iowa Department of Transportation and bids will be put out with possible fall construction.

Laube’s second presentation was the Americans with Disabilities Act improvement project at Eversman Field.

The baseball field currently has no ADA accessibility and the city is looking to increase city-wide handicapped accessibility, Laube said.

The project plan includes the construction of six handicapped parking spaces near the third-base line, a sidewalk from the parking lot to the bleachers, cement pavement under bleachers and a sidewalk from the bleacher to the restrooms.

“Right now there is really no paved parking, its either on gravel or grass,” Laube said. “This is really long overdue, this field, it really should have had some handicapped accessibility a long time ago.”

Laube also noted the field gets a lot of use and is a place where many people go to watch games include many from out of town.

An agreement between the city and schools defines the schools are responsible for maintaining the field, and the city is responsible for maintaining the fence, the lights and everything outside the field.

ADA funds have been set aside for this project along with extra funds from the 2015 bond to go toward additional park needs. The ADA Eversman Field improvement project is $39,000.

The board approved the plan presented.

The project will go out to bid and presented to city council. Construction will be done possibly in July or August after the school baseball season this year.

In other business

• The board is nearing its 2016 fireworks goal of $12,000 but are currently seeking remaining sponsorship. Trinity Structures, U.S. Bank, Hy-Vee and Van Manaan Electric have donated as well as other individual donors.

• The board will look into the design of the caretaker home located in Maytag Park. The city will work with an architect to determine if there’s a way to change the facility into a park office. Parks administrator Nathan Unsworth noted he had nothing more to report but the city was moving forward and plans could come in the future.

Contact Kate Malott at 641-792-3121 ext. 6533 or kmalott@newtondailynews.com