March 28, 2024

Fundraising kicks off for $1.8M trail system

GLENWOOD — Organizers have kicked off fundraising for a $1.8 million trail system in southwest Iowa. The trial would stretch 2 1/2 miles, starting at a trailhead next to Glenwood Community High School. The trailhead will include parking for 100 vehicles and a pavilion with a restroom, clothes-changing facility and outdoor seating. The Glenwood Community School District owns the land.

Fundraising started in earnest with a recent $10,000 donation from the board and will continue through 2018. Organizers hope to start construction in late 2018 or early 2019.

The trail would run along Keg Creek, then east to the city athletic complex. Another link would head north to a youth baseball complex. The plan is for the trail system to connect many Glenwood schools.

Officials expect to install three new bridges over Keg Creek, along with three new culvert crossings over creek tributaries as part of the trail system.

“This is an investment in the community, something people can really enjoy,” Mills County Trails Board President Shawn Koehler said. “We want to make this a destination for Glenwood and help improve our businesses.”

Koehler said the project will be the first step of a trail system that officials hope will connect Glenwood to the Wabash Trace. The plan also calls for trails that would connect the area to the Keystone Trail system across the Missouri River in Bellevue, Nebraska.

“We want to go to all corners of Mills County,” said Randy Romens, vice president of the trails board.

Romens called it a 10- to 15-year project.