A self-organizing group of local bike trail promoters formed the Pedal Perry committee about one year ago, and their efforts bore fruit this week with the erection of a new kiosk along the Raccoon River Valley Trail (RRVT) and the promotion of a new Pedal Perry Bicycle Friendly Business logo.
The all-volunteer Pedal Perry committee organized itself after the 2015 Bike Trail Tourism Conference as they discussed ideas for signage on the RRVT. They developed kiosk and logo designs and landed grant funds to cover manufacturing and printing from the Bock Family Foundation and Alliant Energy.
“We started talking about signage on the trail and about how we can get more information to riders on the trail and get them to our downtown and our businesses,” said Bob Wilson, a Pedal Perry volunteer and executive director of the Perry-Area Chamber of Commerce.
The committee came up with designs for three-sided kiosk signs featuring Perry history on one side, RRVT information on the second and a Perry map on the third side. The map side features the new Pedal Perry Bicycle Friendly Business logo and identifies local businesses with bike-friendly amenities, such as water, rest rooms, dining or groceries.
“The side with the Perry map also has a QR code that links back to our Pedal Perry website,” Wilson said, “where we’ll have an updated directory as well as incentives. So we’ll get bicycle-friendly businesses to offer a coupon or a special as a way to keep people looking at the sign so it doesn’t become static.”
Some elements of the design draw on already familiar features of the RRVT brand, which were developed by an Iowa State University design class in 2006 and further refined by the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association, according to Dallas County Conservation Director Mike Wallace, also a Pedal Perry volunteer.
At the top of each of the three sides of the kiosk is the well known image of the raccoon, mascot of the river and its bike trail. The khaki green background color is also uniform with RRVT signage.
The first three-sided kiosk was placed along the RRVT at Iowa Highway 141 and will be seen by trail users entering Perry from the south. Marking the first successful accomplishment of the Pedal Perry committee were Wilson and Wallace and fellow Pedal Perry volunteers Lee Coons, Jenny Eklund, Scott Finneseth, Mary Laborde and Fred Eitemen.
The committee noted the contribution of Pedal Perry volunteer Jim VonBehren from the DMACC Perry VanKirk Career Academy. VonBehren welded the brackets for the kiosks.
Fundraising has begun for a second kiosk to be placed at the Caboose Park Trailhead in downtown Perry and a third kiosk for the entrance to Perry on the connector trail from Woodward. The route for the trail connecting the RRVT to the High Trestle Trail is still uncertain, a source of some teasing for Wallace.
“Whenever we mention the third kiosk on the connector trail,” Wallace said, “people look at me and say, ‘Which will be where.'” A discussion of the connector trail route occupied the dallas County Conservation Board at their Dec. 8 meeting.
