Mazeppa Trail Committee
Meeting Minutes
Sunday, November 10, 2024
The Mazeppa Trail Committee met with area State Legislators to seek grant money from the State of Minnesota for trail engineering and planning for to better meet eligibility guidelines for Safe Routes to School and Active Transportation grant programs.
Meeting was called to order at 6:00 PM.
Present: Trail Committee member Andrew Miller, Wanda Schafer, Jenny Darcy, Katrina
Hagfors, Mazeppa Daze Committee co-Chair Dan Nelson, Mayor Chris Hagfors,
Council Persons Dustin Wiebusch and Erica Young, City Administrator Karl Nahrgang,
MN State Senator Steve Drazkowski, and MN State Representative Steve Jacob.
Andrew Miller presented the walking/biking trail proposal including previous SRTS grant applications in the early 2000’s, a joint effort with Zumbrota Mazeppa, Schools in 2018, a DNR trail connections grant application developed and submitted in 2023 and 2024 that has developed into the current plan.
He talked about previous fundraising and that the City has approximately $30,000 from fundraising and dedicated budget surpluses earmarked for matching funds for the project. Mr. Miller also spoke about the expansion of future phases of the project that have been suggested by the previous grant reviews.
Mr. Miller relayed that the purpose of the trail would be to create safe routes from the portion of the community that lies south of MN Highway 60 to the school for students, and that this trail expansion will encourage the many recreational walkers to move off the streets to the trails, once completed.
Dan Nelson spoke to the safety aspects of crowd movement and traffic control during the Mazeppa Daze celebration. The proposed trail system would allow for more pedestrians to use safe crossings and keep pedestrians off of the streets after Mazeppa Daze events facilitating easier access to and exit from events in Herb Vik Park for emergency services vehicles stationed in the park during these events.
Mr. Nelson stated that addressing pedestrian safety concerns would ensure that cutting down on the possibility of accidents would ensure that the festival would continue. The Mazeppa Daze festival is a significant economic boon the to community and a major fund-raising event for the non-profit community service groups that put on the festival. (Lion’s Club, Fire Relief, American Legion)
Representative Jacob suggested that the trail committee work with the Wabasha County Highway engineer to develop safety strategies for road crossings.
Senator Drazkowski and Representative Jacob said they would research what other communities have done to receive grants to assist with the non-construction cost associated with projects of this nature. They also said that many grants to Cities for local projects come from the General Obligation bonding bill, but this may be able to be sourced from the transportation bonding bill and may be subject to different matching requirements. They will get back to Mr. Miller with any information that may be available from the State of Minnesota.
Meeting Adjourned at 7:03 PM