March 29, 2024

Colfax launches efforts to address transportation concerns

COLFAX — On a mission to gather transportation information, 31 people came together Saturday in Colfax. Participants in the Colfax Transportation Assets and Barriers meeting complied more than 90 photos of areas throughout the community that have both positive and negative qualities for the city.

“Community visioning is a process to help us better understand how people move about Colfax and what we can do to improve it, or highlight things that are important to us,” said Leslie Berckes, program manager with Trees Forever.

The meeting started with participants reviewing maps of the area and pinpointing specific locations that had assets to the community along with areas that may be barriers. The large group then divided up and went out into the city to take photographs of the areas for visual proof.

The information gathered was deposited in a website that created a map of the city. Areas participants saw as assets were designated with a green dot while areas with barriers were denoted with a red dot.

“When we start seeing clusters of information, clusters of green, clusters of red, that tells us that we need to start paying attention to that area. The steering committee might have known this already, but it gives us some additional information and additional backing to it,” Berckes said.

Assets within the city that the group identified included Women’s Club Park where concerts are held, the Howard Street streetscape — specifically the restored shop front, Lewis Park and Quarry Springs Park and Recreation Area and local businesses such as Georgio’s, Kum & Go and Reed’s Greenhouse.

Areas the group found as barriers and had concerns about varied from busy intersections to areas lacking adequate sidewalks or handicapped accessibility. A few areas that came up more than once in the group were League Road in its deteriorating state, many areas on Highway 117 with poor shoulders, busy intersections and a need for beautification at the city’s entrance and Lewis Park Road being unpaved and hard to access.

Participating in an information gathering meeting like the group did on Saturday is the first step in the grant process, Berckes said.

“It sets you up great for applying for grants or asking for donations because it is not just a group of five people who say that they want this. We can say we did the research, we know this is what the community wants and now we can go forward to get those grants and that funding to get some of the project off of the ground,” Berckes said.

The group will meeting again in about six weeks after Berckes and her associates have gone through all of the information and made a game plan on how work can get started.

“We’ll take all of the information that people gave and the landscape architects will do designs,” Berckes said. “After this is done, we don’t just leave and say, OK you are on your own. We do implantation planning because we want to be able help you guys build on what other people have had success with, talk with you about how you have found success and how can we get the projects done.”

To access the information gathered a webpage is available at www.communityvisioning.org. For more information about Iowa's Living Roadways Community Vision Program, contact Doug Garrett at 515-250-8857 or email ddg429@aol.com.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-791-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com