The Greene County board of supervisors on Monday approved $22,000 funding for public art promised last May in support of a grant application by a free-standing “public art committee” to the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs’ Iowa Great Places program.
The funds will be paid over three years, with half coming from the Conservation Reserve fund (into which camping receipts are placed) and half coming from the Louis Dreyfus discretionary fund. The vote on the motion was 4-1, with supervisor Tom Contner dissenting. The motion was written “not to exceed” in hopes that other fundraising will be done.
The discussion Monday was the first time the supervisors talked about funding public art, although the money was pledged in May.
The supervisors last October approved a resolution in support of the Raccoon River Valley Trail public art initiative. The resolution was part of an application by the RRVT to be designated as an Iowa Great Place. It stated that “it is believed that making an investment in public art on the RVT will lead to increased investment, economic growth and cultural enrichment in the trail communities and region” and that the supervisors “heartily endorse the RRVT ‘In the Shadows of the Rails’ public art initiative.”
The RRVT received the Iowa Great Place designation. As Michelle Fields, a member of the public art committee explained Monday, uncertainty toward the end of the state’s fiscal year about which agency would hold the funds for the Iowa Great Places program created a very short deadline for the grant application.
Auditor Jane Heun received an email to the board of supervisors from Chuck Offenburger of the RRVT board in the evening of May 26. The email included a letter of support for the grant and a request that it be signed and returned by May 30. However, the supervisors’ next meeting wasn’t until June 1.
Board chair John Muir told GreeneCountyNewsOnline that he telephoned the other four supervisors and got their verbal approval to sign and send the letter. He thinks he mentioned that the letter included an offer of $25,000 in matching funds for the $50,000 project.
According to the minutes of the June 1 meeting, Muir reported that he had sent the letter. The letter stated that money would come “from county funds that are directed to significant economic development projects.”
The RRVT learned two weeks ago that the grant application had been approved for a $22,000, requiring $22,000 in county funds as a match.
During Monday’s discussion, Contner said he doesn’t think taxpayers need to pay for art on the trail. He said he’s not against the art, and that he would personally donate to a fundraiser to pay for it.
Supervisor Dawn Rudolph was also uncomfortable with spending the money. “The bike trail I know is an important part of the community. I think the bike trail infrastructure needs some work, and I look at the art as a perk for the bike trail, but I don’t want to take taxpayer money that can be used for infrastructure for art. I would like to see that as fundraising,” Rudolph said. “I understand that grant money can’t be used for infrastructure, but if the art trail is not good to ride on…” “what good is the art,” Contner finished.
The art, which Muir said he thinks of more as “decorative signage,” will be placed along the Raccoon River Valley Trail at the depot trailhead in Jefferson, at Cooper, and at Winkleman Switch, between Jefferson and Cooper. “Personally, I don’t find anything in it that’s appealing to look at, but the information it’s giving… The trail does need attention, but things don’t always come in the right order. If we’re going to continue to support this spur, we’ve got to do something to get them [bikers] to go straight at Herndon rather than turn towards Perry,” Muir said.
The art will tie in with a large sculpture by David Dahlquist at the trailhead in Waukee. Deb McGinn, speaking on behalf of the public art committee, said the RRVT will become one of the longest art installations in the country.
She spoke of Lanesboro, MN, a town of about 500 people located on a bike trail. “They discovered that when they began marketing their community as an art-based, art-friendly community, these bike riders come in droves to their community and they stay a while. When you get people to stay, they spend money,” McGinn said. She talked about a developing a “creative economy” that would draw visitors with spendable income. She said art already in place downtown would draw people who would spend money that day or come back another day to shop.
Greene County farmer Lindsey Larson spoke against public funds for art, saying that he enjoys art and has art in his home, but that trail users should fund art or hold a fundraiser for art along the trail.
Supervisor Guy Richardson supports the expense. “We decided a long time ago that Greene County participate in the establishment of the Raccoon River Valley Trail. The things that have happened in the last couple of years, and the loop from Herndon back to Perry, has the potential to lessen our availability of people coming up to Greene County from that point. I think the trail has been a stimulator of economic activity in Greene County, and in Jefferson, and that’s the way we’ve looked at it. It certainly behooves the county to do what we can to encourage the continued use of the trail up to Greene County, as opposed to people going from Herndon east. When we get the opportunity to do things like this, I think we need to look very seriously at it,” Richardson said.
The art installation project will be completed by the end of 2017.
