Mt. Pleasant selected as 2020 visioning community

MT. PLEASANT - Mt. Pleasant is one of 10 Iowa communities that have been selected to participate in the Iowa's Living Roadways Community Visioning Program in 2020.

The award-winning program integrates technical landscape planning and design techniques with sustainable community action to assist community leaders and volunteers in making sound and meaningful decisions about the local landscape.

The nine other 2020 visioning communities are Avoca, Elkader, Fairfax, Lost Nation, Madrid, Mingo, Polk City, Reinbeck and Wellsburg.

The Iowa's Living Roadways Community Visioning Program is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Transportation in partnership with Iowa State University Extension Landscape Architecture and Trees Forever, an Iowa-based nonprofit organization with a mission to plant trees and care for the environment.

In addition, professional landscape architects offer expertise in creating conceptual design plans for the communities.

To qualify for the visioning program, a community must have a population of fewer than 10,000, existing transportation-related issues and a committee of volunteers willing to dedicate their time and talent to the visioning process.

Since 1996, 241 Iowa communities have benefited from the Visioning Program.

Gail Barels, program and board administrative coordinator for Trees Forever, said the program will involve creating a committee of Mt. Pleasant community members who will meet once a month with a Trees Forever field coordinator. Committee members will brainstorm improvements they'd like to see to Mt. Pleasant. Projects often include updating trails, planting trees and flowers, beautifying an entrance to the town, and improving wayfinding signage.

Community Visioning programs in other towns have focused on planting native prairie grasses, particularly highlighting pollinator needs. Barels said waterways can be part of the plan, too.

Barels said meetings will likely begin in January and continue for 18 months until the final report is ready to publish. The committee will work with a landscape architect to get an idea of what plans are feasible, all while getting public input along the way.

'This [visioning program] is the first step in making decisions such as ‘Do we need to redo the trail here? Improve the lighting there? Make moving from one part of town to another easier? Communities often talk about where they want to add sidewalks,” Barels said.

In November, Ames will host a gathering where entities such as the Iowa DOT, Iowa State University and local city professionals will discuss how to fund the projects being discussed. Barels said the visioning program provides some money for basic improvements such as plantings or a few wayfinding signs, but the bulk of the money will come from outside sources.

According to Iowa's Living Roadways website, this is the second time Mt. Pleasant has been selected to participate in the Community Visioning program. The last time was during the years 2000-2001, when landscape architects Julie Mittelstadt & Al Bohling were hired to suggest changes to the town.

Among the suggested changes back then were:

' Convert the intersection of Highway 218 and Highway 34 from a four-way stop to either a roundabout or a typical intersection with traffic signals (the two highways now go around the town).

' Plant canopy and ornamental trees to provide variety and color.

' Add amenities such as recreational trails, sidewalks, crosswalks, and lighting to the intersection.

' For the railroad corridor, improve the existing depot by adding a handicap accessible brick plaza around it, handicap parking spaces and more outdoor seating; plant trees, shrubs, perennial beds, and grass throughout the depot corridor.

The city of Washington participated in the visioning program once, in 2005, and the city of Fairfield has done it twice, first in 2002-2003 and again in 2015.