Ten small Iowa communities have been named to take part in what’s called Iowa’s Living Roadways Community Visioning Program in 2017.
Sandra Oberbroeckling, spokeswoman for the Community and Economic Development department at Iowa State University, explains the purpose of the program, which targets Iowa towns with populations under 10,000.
“We help them develop ideas and set priorities for transportation enhancement planning,” Oberbroeckling says. “That can include trails, streetscapes, a lot of communities have done entrance signs.” The communities will get help from the pros on making their downtowns prettier and more practical both for visitors and locals.
“Say putting in the bump-outs on the ends of the curbs and crosswalks and maybe adding some vegetation,” Oberbroeckling says. “A lot of small towns, their main street used to be a highway and in many cases it still is, so it’s usually just this large expanse of cement and they like to make it more pedestrian friendly.”
Oberbroeckling says both ISU and Trees Forever play important roles with the visioning process for each of the ten communities. They are: Adel, Clarion, Granger, Greene, Humboldt, Lester, Massena, Morning Sun, Scranton and Varina. The results of the program will be released next November.
(Reporting by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City)