The New York Times profiles the emergence of Perry as an example for small town redevelopment, and the Times cites the Raccoon River Valley Trail as one of the essential pieces in the Perry plan. You can get a link to the story here.
PERRY, Iowa, April 14, 2010 – This west central Iowa town, located on the new North Loop being added to the Raccoon River Valley Trail, received a major boost on Wednesday when it was featured in a glowing story in the real estate section of the New York Times.
Reporter Keith Schneider spent time in Perry late last year, and did follow-up phone interviews, in putting together the story headlined: “Rebuilding a Town, One Piece at a Time.”
The story says that Perry is now a good model about how to pool several different development projects into a successful economic makeover of a small town in rural America.
One of the new assets Perry is using, the story points out, is its location on the new loop of the RRVT.
To read the full story on the Times site on the Internet, click here.
Delbert Niebuhr, the Perry city administrator quoted in the story, is a member of the board of directors of the Raccoon River Valley Trail Association, although we all know him as “Butch.” He has been instrumental in the rapid development of the RRVT on its two-mile route through Perry. In the town, the trail is open and getting heavy use from local bicyclists, walkers, joggers and skaters.
