Austin City Council approves funding for whitewater river trail feasbility study at Monday meeting

The Austin City Council approved taking $5,000 from 2023 contingency funds and $5,000 from Park and Rec Capital Improvement Plan funding for an Austin Whitewater River Trail feasibility study at their Monday meeting.  Austin Mayor Steve King spoke with KAUS during the “Meet the Mayor” segment of “Wright Here, “Right Now” and stated that if the project comes to fruition, it would be the first of its kind in the state of Minnesota…

Recreation Engineering & Planning, or REP from Boulder, Colorado will be conducting the study, which is expected to take 4-6 months to complete.  The total cost of the study will be $51,000, with additional funding to be provided by the Mower Soil and Water Conservation District, which will be providing $25,000 in federal ARPA funds, plus $5,000 each from Hormel Foods and the Cedar-Waspi One Watershed One Plan, $3,000 will be coming from Pheasants Forever, $2,000 for the study will be provided by the Austin HRA, and $1,000 in donated funds will be coming from Nate Smit to Discover Austin for project support items.