When it comes to possibly developing a section of Grant Wood Trail into Springville, there appear to be two main schools of thought.
That was evident during Monday's Linn County Conservation board meeting.
"Leave this section of the trail as natural as possible," says Jacque Keppler, who lives near the trail.
"I'd like to speak in favor today of a hard surface," Kurt Rogahn says.
Public comment at the meeting highlighted an ongoing debate: asphalt versus earth.
The main issue at hand is the surface of the trail. Right now, the section starting at Creekside Road is hard-packed dirt. The proposal is to gravel, then eventually pave it, which also requires widening the trail.
Ultimately, Linn County Conservation hopes to connect the existing trail all the way to Springville.
Several members of Linn County's Trails Association voiced support for paving. Some said it will make it more accessible for those with disabilities.
"Everyone will be able to use the trail if it's hard surface and eventually paved. It's not gonna exclude anybody," says Greg Januske, a new association board member.
Others said it would benefit any towns the trail connects to by drawing in more cyclists.
"The economic development component to this is bicyclists spend money in small towns," Rogahn says. "This would be a boost to Springville to make it a bicycling destination."
Though for many who live near or use the trail, it's already perfect as is.
"People use it for all kinds of activities, not just biking," Keppler says.
"There are strollers, there are people with walkers. There are people with canes," says Judy Lucas, who heads the Save Grant Wood Trail group. "They come to use this trail because they like it just the way it is."
Those against paving have several concerns, including the fear pavement would mean the nature trail becomes a busy road, with inconsiderate bicyclists zipping past pedestrians. Others fear the environmental impacts like erosion, loss of tree canopy, and the destruction of native wildflowers.
Linn County Conservation executive director Dennis Goemaat says there's a plan in place to reseed native flowers. Right now, he says, the plan is to mow what's there and "see what comes back."
Goemaat also responded to several other concerns, including the idea that walkers and runners will be discouraged from using a paved surface.
"By off-setting this hardened surface to one side, we can maintain that firm grass surface for other users. There will be a choice for trail users," he says. "I'm convinced we can do this in a very sensitive manner; we can get the trail accomplished with the hard surface and a grass surface."
Goemaat says a "very, very limited" number of trees along the existing trail will need to be removed, mostly trees that are growing over the path.
Todd Happel with Anderson-Bogert presented the board with preliminary plans for the expansion of the trail, including some environmental findings, from Secrist Road to Paralta Road.
"What we're looking at here, initially, is providing a 10-foot gravel section and pushing that as far east as we can and then maintaining the remainder of the space to the west as a gravel trail," he says. "Right now there's two to three inches of topsoil across the whole thing. What we'd do is take the topsoil and placing it, supplementing it on the west half, just to get grass growing."
Happel also echoed the idea of very limited tree removal.
"We want to maintain as much canopy as we can over this thing," he says.
The board voted to approve the proposed development plan, which begins with laying down gravel or limestone on the section from Creekside Road to Paralta Road. There's existing grant funding for that portion of the project, but the board must submit plans to IDOT within the next few months.
The trail connection from Paralta into Springville doesn't yet exist, Goemaat says, but the town will need to soon determine where that path should go.
"IDOT is developing plans for that viaduct, that interchange with 151," Goemaat says. "They want this by the first quarter, as I understand."
Other aspects of the development into Springville will depend on more funding sources. Goemaat says paving of the section of trail from Springville to Paralta will happen once the viaduct is complete.
"Then finally, I think the time for paving that last section from Creekside Road to Paralta will be kind of the last segment for this section," Goemaat says.
"I just don't see the paving happening until this is connected to Springville and of course, as I say, that's grant-dependent and when that happens," Happel says.