Unexpected Costs, Repairs Slow Opening Of Pedestrian Bridge

The development of a recreational trails system in Glenwood is at a pause as city and school district leaders try to gain a better understanding of the finances and agreements surrounding the proposed project.

The status of the Keg Creek pedestrian bridge and grant funding for the proposed trail system has been the focus of recent discussions between school district and city officials.

At a January “Super Board” meeting of city, county and school district representatives, Glenwood Community School District Superintendent Nicole Kooiker addressed the pedestrian bridge, which has remained unopened since being placed over Keg Creek in February 2024. The bridge was acquired by Mills County Trails in 2020 from an Omaha recycling firm. It had previously served as a pedestrian walkway over the Keystone Trail in the Ak-Sar-Ben area of Omaha. The school district owns the property at both entrances to the bridge.

Kooiker addressed the bridge during the Super Board meeting, noting the bridge is still in need of some repairs and reinforcement to make it safe for pedestrians to walk over. She said she’s walked over the bridge to inspect it first-hand and among her concerns are some warped and rotting boards and missing screws. There are also concerns about the sturdiness of hand railings and the possible need of some type of netting along the bridge because of its height from the water.

Kooiker, who was appointed superintendent in December, said the school district absorbed unexpected costs because the bridge wasn’t placed properly over the creek.

“The bridge didn’t get set where the bridge was supposed to be so things got adjusted and changed,” she said.

The school district contends the bridge was placed farther to the west side of the creek than it was supposed to be, resulting in the approach to the bridge and an handicapped accessible ramp encroaching on existing facilities at the school district’s athletic complex.

GCSD Finance Director Tim Reinert said the misplacement of the bridge resulted in nearly $100,000 in expenses for the school district.

“Last summer, GCSD had to make $98,318 of improvements to the activity complex due to where the bridge was placed,” Reinert said. “The placement required additional work for an ADA ramp and moving the shot put rings, the discus rings and the softball batting cages.”

In 2018, the school district committed to contributing $150,000 from its Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) fund generated by a 1-cent sales tax levy to the proposed trails network that would link Glenwood Lake Park and city’s athletic complex on the south side of Sharp Street to the former Native American earth lodge site and school district athletic complex on the north side of Sharp Street.

The former earth lodge site, now owned by the school district, is on the east side of the pedestrian bridge and has been designated as a “trail head” and parking site for the trails system.

Reinert said the school district has now spent more than its $150,000 on the project. In addition to expenses associated with the work on the athletic complex side of the bridge, the district has paid $75,000 directly to the city of Glenwood. Another $75,000 in SAVE dollars is still in place but the funds are not currently allocated to either the bridge or parking lot.

School district officials, prior to Kooiker’s hiring, had previously discussed a gravel or paved parking lot on the former earth lodge site. Kooiker said the district is now leaning towards keeping the site a grass surface but wanted to know what permitting process would be required from the city to do so. She noted that grass parking is used on the middle school site for overflow parking for activities at the athletic complex.

“People park in the grass all the time around here, right? We’re not planning to make it gravel or pavement,” she said. “The question is can we keep it grass, like people park at the middle school and walk across? Can they park there and walk across? If we have to rock that big area, there’s going to be some cost to that.”

Kooiker was told a variance request would likely have to be made and she was advised to contact the city’s code enforcement specialist – fire chief Matt Gray.

The bridge was one of several topics of discussion related to the trails project at last week’s city council meeting. Because of a funding shortfall for the project, the city may be forced to surrender thousands of grant dollars earmarked for the project. The trails project has been awarded multiple grants through Iowa Department Of Natural Resources totaling $385,000, but has been advised it should no longer request an extension on use of the funds. The city’s current extension for the grants ends in April.

The city’s engineering consultant Jake Zimmerer said most of those grants are for construction of an actual concrete walking surface and a 20-25% match is required.

Glenwood Mayor Angie Winquist said higher than anticipated engineering costs have depleted trails funds and to complicate matters, the grant applications were made prior to the current mayor, city administrator and  some city council members being in place so there is confusion regarding what was included in the original grant application.

New city administrator Mitch Kolf has been instructed to research the grants as the city tries to determine if any of the grant dollars can be applied toward completed or uncompleted bridge work.

Winquist said she believes the immediate priority should be to reach an agreement with the school district for completion of work that needs to be done on the pedestrian bridge.

“We need to make this bridge at least passable,” she said.