Mount Vernon city council approved funding the third phase of the sculpture art trail that runs along Nature Park trail, on June 17 in a 3-2 vote. Council members Paul Tuerler and Mark Andresen were the dissenting opinions, citing issues with the funding stream that would be utilized
All members of the council are in favor of the art installations, the difference of opinion was about how those installations are funded.
The Parks and Recreation commission recommended funding phase three of the sculpture art trail using $10,000 of Local Option Sales and Service Tax funds dedicated for trails.
Tuerler and Andresen had issues with utilizing LOSST for beautification of the trails. While the beautification of the trails is nice, they believe they should be more careful with the funding and other ideas need to take priority, like finishing and adding more trails.
“Fiscally speaking, funding mechanisms are in place to fund what the intent [of the money] is, and we need to be careful when we [want to change] that,” Tuerler said.
Tuerler believes the council and parks and recreation need to save the money to support the Inter Urban Trail as it will connect the city of Cedar Rapids to Mount Vernon. A trail like that would benefit the economy much like similar trails in Ely.
A topic that was brought up was what the voter intention was for these funds. Tuerler was on council when the funding decision was voted on in 2011. He pointed out that the vote’s original intent was to use the funds for parks and trails in the traditional extent, not falling under the category of beautification and art installation.
It was noted by the council that the wording of the vote was left vague so that future councils can alter the words to how they see fit, opening the door for the LOSST funds to be used on phase three of the sculpture art trail.
“The voters were voting on parks and recreational trails,” council member Scott Rose said.
Rose believes that the sculpture art trail should be included underneath the LOSST fund umbrella.
This would be the third time in the past two years that funds were taken out of the LOSST funds. The prior times were for lighting on trails by the schools for more safety for adults and children to walk to the school, per the Mount Vernon Schools request, totaling $43,000. LOSST was also used for the council’s support of the first phase of the sculpture art trail.