MENOMONIE — While it may seem like not much has changed in front of the Dunn County Government Center, the completion of their recreational trail means safety, accessibility and collaboration for the city and county.
On Tuesday, a ribbon cutting was held for the completion of the expansion to the recreational trail along Highway 12/29.
“There has been a trail that has run around Lake Menomin for some time… but there was a piece of it — about a mile and a half long — that was not connected,” said Kris Korpela, Dunn County Manager. “You could ride to the north or you could come around on the highway… but you had to go along Highway 12/29.”
Korpela said they initially had conversations about the upgrading of a service road, but saw a greater benefit from investing the money into creating the recreational trail for the community. Now creating an 8.3-mile loop around the entirety of Lake Menomin, the trail offers a safer option for pedestrians trying to reach county and city resources or facilities on foot or by bicycle.
“Any access to the county government really can be obtained on this road,” she said. “The judicial center is just about a quarter of a mile to the east here, so anyone going to any court, the jail, the sheriff’s department, the police department… accessing all of those things are available on this trail. But then this connects directly into Menomonie and through the downtown, so you can do a really nice loop around the entire city without ever having to be on a vehicle travel path.”
With the path also looping into downtown Menomonie, Mayor Randy Knaack said it connects the community to business.
“The other thing is that this loop also functions as a commute for workers, so it goes right past 3M, the industrial park, it makes easy access for the tech park, the judicial center, the jail. People a lot of times will leave the jail and have to walk to work or drive a bike, so at this point they can utilize the trail system, ” he said.
But for both Knaack and Korpela, the trail also represents a collaborative effort between the city and the county.
Initially projected at $250,000, the Menomonie City Council approved a cost-sharing agreement with the county in November 2023 that would split the cost by half with the county using leftover funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. Construction began this May and was completed by June, with Korpela adding that they were actually able to stay well under budget, roughly $200,000, once completed.
“The exciting thing for me is twofold,” said Korpela. “First, I regularly would see people walking along Highway 12/29 here, on the side of the road. As a cyclist, that is not a safe place to be, so it’s really exciting that people now have a safe space to walk. But secondly, we actually accomplished this. There weren’t any glitches, and we all agreed it was a great project.”
With work and celebration on both the county and city side of things, Knaack said he hopes for more collaboration in the future.
“The county and the city are really working well together, and the more that we can do together the better it is for everybody,” he said.
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