Supervisors move to provide more snowmobile trails

By BRYCE KELLY

Mt. Pleasant News

Snowmobile riders have something to look forward to this winter.

During Thursday?s Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting, the board passed an agreement to allow Southeast Iowa Ridge Blasters Snowmobile Club a few more extensions on various snowmobile trails around Henry County.

Aaron Dorothy, vice president elect of the club, was present during the passing of the agreement along with Henry County engineer Jake Hotchkiss. According to Hotchkiss, the new trail routes have been approved and don?t pose any major threat to county roads or bridges.

?There won?t be any damages or additional costs to us as a county, or any potential harm to our existing structures,? Hotchkiss said in regards to the new routes. ?The trails are placed in areas where snowmobiles shouldn?t have to come up on the road too much and they will be able to traverse without interrupting traffic.?

Hotchkiss also explained that the snowmobiles will have to cross with traffic on paved roads that have bridges, but stated that as long as snowmobile operators are careful to heed basic rules of traffic safety, there should be very few issues.

Dorothy reiterated many of Hotchkiss? comments regarding safety saying that the club is committed to following basic safety precautions while they are out riding this winter. He also took a moment to thank the Henry County Board of Supervisors for working with the club to bring these new trails to fruition.

?It?s been a lot of paperwork and man-hours to bring this together,? Dorothy said. ?When we first set out to provide snowmobiles trails in Henry County, people thought it would never happen. So far, we have held up to our word and now have about 52 members and 130 miles worth of trail in southeast Iowa. Thank you for working with us.?

Besides signing an approval for Southeast Iowa Ridge Blasters, Gary See and Marc Lindeen both gave sub-committee reports. First to go was See and his report on the latest Southeast Iowa Regional Early Childhood meeting that was held in Danville. See reported that the main conversation during the meeting involved the possibility of a merger between various Regional Early Childhood groups in southeast Iowa.

?There is talk of a merger between Des Moines, Louisa, Henry and Washington counties. Talks of a merger are going forward, however there are some concerns at the state level that are being discussed,? See said. ?These four counties seem to be quite comfortable together and they think it would be a good idea, so that conversation is still on the table.?

Marc Lindeen was next and gave a report on the latest from Community Action of Southeast Iowa (CASI). News was positive from CASI as a year-end report that was given at CASI?s last meeting showed that roughly $370,000 was spent on various projects in Henry County. This, Lindeen reported, was very positive news.

?This money was used to assist Henry County people with weatherization projects and energy assistance projects, among other things, which is a really good thing.?

In addition, Lindeen reported that Henry County Emergency Management completed a Henry County Hazardous Mitigation Plan. The plan has been almost two years in the making and was presented to the Henry County Emergency Management Plan board during their last meeting.

The next Henry County Board of Supervisors meeting will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 9 a.m., in the Henry County Courthouse. All meetings are open to the public.