About 50 members of the Mid-America Trails and Greenways (MATAG) conference visited Perry Monday afternoon in one of the biannual conference’s mobile workshop.
The MATAG conferees toured Perry as Trail Town USA, visiting the trailhead of the Raccoon River Valley Trail after hearing brief remarks in the Spring Valley Ballroom of the Hotel Pattee.
The conferees haile from across the Midwest and are seeking ways to turn their communities into cycling destinations. Perry has made progress redeveloping the abandoned railway brownfields and started a Trail-Friendly Businesses program.
Perry was represented at the mobile workshop by a six-person team: City Administrator Sven Peterson, Perry-Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bob Wilson, former city administrator and development consultant Butch Niebuhr and local entrepreneurs and bike-trail enthusiasts Jay Hartz of the Hotel Pattee, Jenny Eklund of La Poste and Lee Coons of the Raccoon River Valley Bicycle Co.
The Perry team discussed how Perry became Trail Town USA by garnering local business support and generating excitement through trail-centered events, according to the MATAG program.
