Council OKs land for Perche Creek Trail

Residents would not pay new taxes to finance the trail, spokeswoman says.

By Ryan Schmitz

Published Oct. 21, 2008

The Columbia City Council unanimously approved the acquisition of private land to construct a new trail.

The trail would connect Interstate 70 to the MKT Nature and Fitness Trail southwest of city limits.

Located adjacent to a former wastewater treatment plant and running parallel to Perche Creek on its east side, the $185,000 project will be funded by existing voter approved sales taxes.

City spokeswoman Toni Messina said Columbia residents would not pay any new taxes to finance the trail.

"Having a network of trails and natural areas has been a high priority in the city of Columbia for many years," Messina said.

Mayor Darwin Hindman said he was grateful for the donation of the land for public use as a recreational area. He said the creek could be used to sail small boats.

"The green space itself is very valuable to us, but Perche Creek occasionally has enough water in it to float boats," Hindman said. "I think we're opening that up to a possibility sometime down the road."

The council also authorized city staff members to prepare an application for a grant to fund its Neighborhood Stabilization Program, which provides housing for low- and middle-income residents. If the application were accepted, the funds would be drawn from a grant Missouri received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this year to provide public housing. Columbia will have to compete with other cities in the state for a share of the funding.

"We don't know exactly how much money Columbia will get," Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala said. "The federal grant requires Missouri as a whole to receive at least $19.6 billion, and then the state decides how much to distribute to the local governments."

Skala said that five areas the city will focus on improving if they receive money from the grant are buying foreclosed homes, buying land and property, demolishing or rehabilitating abandoned land and property, offering down payments to low-income home buyers and managing vacant land to encourage redevelopment.

The seven members also consented to an agreement with the Missouri Department of Public Safety to continue the construction of low-income housing and the operation of after-school programs for youth in the city. The city will receive $22,800 from the department to provide the services.

Skala said Columbia was one of two local governments in the state that were awarded the grant last year. This included a sub-grant for Columbia Housing Authority Low Income Services.

Skala said some of the money from the grant would go toward improving after-school programs, which he said he hopes will encourage parents to participate more actively in the lives of their children.

"Another portion of the money will go to Big Brothers/Big Sisters program," he said. "We want this enrichment program to improve parental involvement in their children's education, maintain good student conduct and improve academic performance."

In a conference before the meeting, the council discussed the idea of selling advertising space on Columbia Transit buses. A firm the city enlisted to research the merits of the plan claimed that Columbia could generate $250,000 from these ads in the first year. A second firm was less optimistic, estimating gross sales as between $40,000 and $70,000 after accounting for the economic downturn. The council decided to seek additional opinions before ruling on the plan.