Turkey River Corridor

FINALISTS!!

2009-08-25T18:31:00.001-07:00

Dear 2009 Great Places applicants-

The Staff and I want to extend thanks for all the hard work you did in submitting the Great Places proposals for this year. We had many outstanding applications for the upcoming year. I want to thank you for all your hard work and the extra time you spent preparing and submitting your proposals.

Your time, effort and hard work were shown in the high quality of the proposals. All of the places put a lot of time planning and volunteer hours to submit their proposals.

After much consideration the Citizens Advisory Board chose six places as the finalists for the bus tour that will take place September 29th and 30th. They are as follows:

Cedar Valley Alliance

Iowa City/Coralville/North Liberty

City of Marion

Turkey River Corridor

Tama County

Van Buren County

The Citizens Advisory Board took into consideration the limited amount of state funding for the proposed projects; the limited staff available for providing resources; the readiness factor of places to move forward; and the adequacy of secured funding to maintain and fund the proposed projects all were factored into the selection criteria.

The staff also wants to recognize the efforts of the other places that were not selected. Rolfe, Albia and Lee County made good proposals and will be encouraged to continue in the process of making their place a better place to work, play and make a living.

I will be in contact with your Great Places committee head to finalize the itinerary for the bus tour for September 29th and 30th within the next few days. I will also suggest times, and the format of the formal presentations in your place.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

Again thanks for your hard work and Good Luck,

Francis Boggus

Iowa Great Places Coordinator

Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs

Great Places Application for Turkey River Corridor Complete

2009-08-07T12:14:00.001-07:00

A little bit of hard work and the application and Power Point are complete. Getting printed today and delivered on Monday. The document is posted for all to see on the documents window to the right side of the blog.

Adam Pollock

New Google Documents and Images Posted

2009-07-28T07:31:00.002-07:00

Maps of the
Root River Trail
Mississippi River Trail
Elkader Pony Hollow Trail

Aerial Satellite view of downtown Elkader
Terrain map of downtown Elkader
Street map of downtown Elkader

Images of Sweet Corn Days in Elkader

Are all now posted in the Picasa albums and/or as PDF's also in the Google Documents.

Note that we are starting to code documents into folders for organization.

Adam P.

2009-07-28T07:31:00.001-07:00

Writing group for the Iowa Great Places Grant met at the library from 6 to 8 on Monday July 27, 2009/ Jill Sanders, Sue Gnagy, Claire Wright, Roger Buchholz, Maureen Johnson, Rod Marlatt, Adam Pollock and Bob Hendrickson were present.

1. Announcements - Board of Supervisors meeting Wednesday at 10am - everyone please come if you can - letter of support
Linda Howard from Iowa Great Places will be at our meeting Thursday July 30 to help with the grant writing. She will also work Friday morning.

2. Sue will call Laura Friest for maps to include in the grant application.

3. Rest of evening was spent looking at the Final Grant.PDF. Sue will lay in captions. We took each section and talked about possible inclusions.
Small groups worked on their sections. Rough drafts will be put in the document section of our Google account by noon Thursday. Sue will lay these in to the template, and we will ask Roger Thomas to print 10 copies for Thursday night.

Minutes July 23, 2009

2009-07-25T14:57:00.001-07:00

To develop and enhance our existing natural resource base
through the creation of land and water trails to serve as the catalyst
for economic growth and development

Projects:
1. Water Trail

    PHASE ONE - Designation of 114 miles of the Turkey River as an
Iowa Water Trail. March 25, 2009. This includes the Turkey River
Corridor Great Place communities of Clermont,
                                   Elgin and Elkader. (Signage, brochures, trail maps, and marketing materials) USE MAP FROM WATER TRAIL GRANT done by fall 2010.
       PHASE TWO - Design improvements for accessibility to river, recreational activities and ecology.
        PHASE THREE - Implement improvements for accessibility to river, recreational activities and ecology.


2. Recreational Trail
       PHASE ONE - Implement Elgin to Clermont and west to Nims Bridge USE MAP HERE Design Elkader to Elgin trail.
        PHASE TWO - Develop community trails to enhance community support for regional trails. Looping intra-community trails connecting to downtown.
        PHASE THREE - Implement Elkader to Elgin trail and Turkey River Corridor ammenities.

What is the Turkey River Corridor?

2009-07-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

The Turkey River Corridor is a picturesque stretch of the Turkey River running through Fayette and Clayton Counties. A group of Fayette and Clayton County residents and officials are coordinating efforts to develop sustainable attractions that build on the strengths of the Turkey River as a beautiful natural resource. Primary goals are a recreational trail from Clermont through Elgin to Elkader and a water trail. Major achievements have already been made toward the water trail and the first phase of the recreational trail from Clermont to Elgin.

The corridor group is working on an application to obtain an Iowa Great Places designation for the Turkey River Corridor. The group is also working through the Iowa Trees Forever Visioning process.

-Claire Wright

New images and videos posted

2009-07-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Images of the 2004 and 2008 Turkey River Flood in Elkader are now available in the Picassa albums.

Videos of the 2004 and 2008 Turkey River Flood in Elkader are now available at YouTube (search Elkader Iowa Flood)

-Adam Pollock

July 20, 2009 Great Places Meeting Notes

2009-07-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

July 20, 2009
Eleven members of the Turkey River Corridor committee met to begin writing the Great Places application on Monday, July 20 at 6pm at the library. Rod Marlatt, Maureen Johnson, Vicki Rowland, Jill Sanders, Sue Gnagy, Claire Wright, Frederique Boudouani, Adam Pollock, Bob Henderickson, Tim Engelhardt and Roger Buchholz.

1. Jill Sanders provided the library laptops and Claire Wright introduced the group to Google documents.
- go to www.google.com
-sign in Trrkey River Corridor@gmail.com
-password TurkeyRiver
-More menu on left - pull down to DOCUMENTS
read or create a document under the NEW menu
edit an existing document and highlight - click on the A to change font color to indicate an edit

2. Adam loaded the 2009 Great Places application into Google Documents. All the direction are part 1 of 4, part 2 of 4 etc. The actual application are all section 3. Because it is so long, Adam loaded it in pieces.

3. You can also check the Turkey River Corridor blog at Turkeyrivercorridor.blogspot.com. I'll add these minutes when I figure out how.

4. Next we worked on who would write what.

Great Places Structure
Section 1 49 pts/119 4 pages Status of Place
Elkader Claire Wright Frederique Boudouani
Clermont Vicki Rowland Maureen Johnson
Elgin

Section 2 21pts/119 5 pages Vision 1. Water Trail, 2. Recreation Trail, 3. Access to the River, 4. Signage
Elkader Bob Hendrickson - Tim Engelhardt - Rod Marlatt -Adam Pollock
Clermont
Elgin

Section 3 49pts/119 16 pages
A. Implementing the Vision (+timeline – budget)
Elkader Bob Hendrickson - Tim Engelhardt -Adam Pollock
Clermont Rod Marlatt
Elgin

B. Sustainable Community Development and “Green Principles” (for each project???)
Elkader Sue Gnagy, Frederique Boudouani, Jill Sanders
Clermont Maureen Johnson
Elgin

C. Management and Marketing
Elkader Sue Gnagy, Jill Sanders
Clermont
Elgin

We also need a Powerpoint presentation which will come from the above.

We should look at Charles City and Spencer application

5. Next we worked on a tentative timeline for the application Bob Hendrickson, Tim Engelhardt, Rod Marlatt and Adam Pollock.

6. We are looking for pictures to use with the application. Upload to this Google group site.

7. Each group will have something to share at the next work session Thursday, July 23 at the Elkader Public Library at 6pm. We decided to continue meeting at the library to use the laptops. We will meet Mondays and Thursdays until the grant is completed. Deadline is August 10th.

Sue Gnagy

Draft of Great Places letter of intent

2009-02-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

Really rough draft of letter of Intent to Submit Proposal due April 15
April 10, 2009

Great Places Citizens Advisory Board
Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs
600 E. Locust St.
Des Moines, IA 50319

Dear Citizen Advisory Board Members:

The Turkey River Corridor communities of Clermont, Elgin and Elkader would like to extend an
invitation to the State of Iowa to be our partner in officially making the Turkey River Corridor an
“Iowa Great Place.” This letter indicates of our intent to submit a proposal for the
Great Places Designation.

INFORMATION/BACKGROUND - paragraph from each community
The Turkey River is a popular outdoor recreation and tourism destination in Northeast Iowa.

PRELIMINARY VISION IDEAS AND LOCAL PARTNERS
This regional Great Place will have the Turkey River as the connecting thread between
Clermont, Elgin, Elkader, Motor Mill and existing natural attractions to create an area-wide
destination. The river and subsequent hard trails development will be the backbone of a multi-
community collaboration to create a new foundation for future growth and stability. The regional
plan will include development opportunities for a wide range of cultural, historical and recreational activities and access
related to the river.

As in many rural Iowa regions, Clayton and Fayette Counties are becoming more and more dependent on tourism and natural resources for economic development. We recognize and embrace that trend,
and believe that this type of a resource-based project along the Turkey River can bring new
visitors, help attract and hold new businesses and residents, and give new life to our communities.
We have already seen an increase in motels, bed and breakfasts, campgrounds and restaurants due
to an increase in tourism traffic. We believe that this project will improve the local economy by
attracting people such as white-water paddlers, canoe enthusiasts, anglers, bikers, hikers, nature
enthusiasts, history buffs, artists, photographers, etc. The Turkey River Corridor will lead to new festivals and events that will utilize the re-constructed riverfront.

Please assign a coaching team to work with us to develop our Great Places Proposal.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

The primary contact people are:
Maureen //////// Clermont, >>>>>>>>>
Arleon Kelley >>>>>>>>>>>>>>arleon 35@alpinecom.net
Roger Thomas>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sincerely,
Contact People