Cerro Gordo County, Mason City discuss options on Prairie Land Trail connector

MASON CITY — The Cerro Gordo County Board of Supervisors earlier this week held a workshop session to discuss the Prairie Land Trail connector project proposed for between 19th Street Southwest near Newman Catholic High School and the Prairie Land Trailhead near 240th Street and Nettle Avenue. The biggest obstacle for the project is the section between the abandoned Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way at Nettle and the trailhead.

One option would be to have four-foot paved shoulders with bikers sharing the road on Nettle and then going west on 240th Street to the trailhead. The cheaper construction option would be to use the abandoned railroad embankment to make the connection.

Scott Sweet with WHKS says the problem is that the railroad doesn’t seem interested in selling the right-of-way. “The railroad right-of-way is still owned by the railroad. The county in the past has talked to the railroad about possibly looking at what it would cost to purchase that, but I don’t think we’ve gotten anywhere on that.” The difference between the two options is about $50,000.

City of Mason City engineer Mark Rahm says it’s worth trying to continue to seek an answer about the right-of-way from the railroad. “The railroad was offered $10,000, they didn’t even respond. I don’t know what it’s going to take for them to respond, but our numbers are showing that there’s a lot more cost savings than $10,000 if we can get Option A. So there is the possibility of going back to them and trying to negotiate something that is acceptable to them and still give us a safer, more efficient, and lower-cost project at the end of the day. There’s some benefits here for us to actually try and up that offer with them if that’s what it takes.”

The estimated cost of that section of trail, depending on whether chips or hot-mix-asphalt is used, would be between $165,000-to-$252,000 with the railroad right-of-way option, compared to a cost of $206,000-to-$293,000.