Officials are taking a three-pronged approach in their application for a COVID relief grant to use towards a new recreational trail in the Southtown Development of Kalona.

Iowa is expected to receive $5 million in stimulus money from the American Rescue Plan to award to trail and other recreational projects. Washington County Conservation Executive Director Zach Rozmus says they’re teaming up with the City of Kalona and Southtown developer, C.J. Moyna and Sons, to apply for funding that would significantly move their 2.25 mile project forward, “In the short term planning, we weren’t really essentially planning on having a paved trail because it comes down to funding. Concrete is expensive, so when the opportunity presented itself for a grant such as this, we kind of tried to expedite that a little bit, so maybe we’re thinking long term it would’ve been five, 10 years where we’re looking at paving, now if we can have an opportunity at a funding mechanism in the short term, I think we’re going to be really competitive with that.”

Rozmus says the COVID grant program is targeting “shovel ready” projects and with a developer already involved with grading and other prep work, it should make the Southtown recreational trail an ideal candidate for federal funds. The application deadline is May 17th. He says the trail would start near 133rd Street in Kalona, wind through the timbers overlooking the English River bed, loop around the so-called “swimming pond” and return to its starting point.