As work continues at SouthTown in Kalona, the Kalona city council approved another step toward linking the newly acquired area to the established portion of town. At their recent meeting, the council disclosed to the public that a 20-30 person trails committee is being formed to help with suggestions for future work. This is in response to a $1 million donation that the city received from the Shiloh Committee for trail development. Kalona City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh spoke recently with KCII News about the donation and possible plans for future work, “We are well underway on the planning, and hopefully in the near future, the design phase. We’re very excited about the generous gift from Shiloh. We’re excited to have some resources to put toward a project that’s been on a lot of people’s minds for a while. There is a Washington County trails plan and we did some master planning as well outside of the plan that we’re currently under. It did call out to have connectivity across the river.”

The committee’s work is focused on a trail system that would link Kalona City Park with Vista Park in SouthTown.