The Platteville Community Arboretum’s Moving Platteville Outdoors Rountree Trail campaign has exceeded $500,000 in matching funds toward the project’s Department of Natural Resources grant.
The Moving Platteville Outdoors campaign is now looking to raise the last $143,000 to meet the DNR’s requirements of a local match for the $642,692 grant the DNR awarded the City of Platteville for the project.
Volunteers last week put door-hangers on city houses with information about the project. Donation checks should be made out to PCA and mailed to P.O. Box 302, Platteville, WI, 53818, with “MPO” in the check memo line. Contributions can also be made online at plattevillearboretum.org/MPO. Contributions to PCA are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.
Moving Platteville Outdoors is a community effort among the arboretum, the City of Platteville, the Platteville Community Fund, Building Platteville, and the UW–Platteville Foundation to “encourage people to get outside and enjoy the natural environment; promote a healthy, active lifestyle; and improve the quality of life in the Platteville community by expanding and improving the Rountree Branch Trail,” as stated in a PCA news release.
The Cindy Tang Charitable Trust has pledged to match all donations received during this campaign dollar for dollar up to $25,000. The matching pledge, combined with the funding from the state Department of Natural Rsources, means that each dollar donated up to $25,000 will be worth $3 to the project.
Donors of $100 or more will receive a specially designed yard sign to recognize their support.
The Moving Platteville Outdoors project will improve the Rountree Branch Trail by:
• Rerouting the trail around a set of stairs, making it accessible to bikes, strollers, and the disabled.
• Replacing a failing bridge.
• Constructing missing segments of the trail to provide an off road connection to the Platteville Dog Park and the future Platteville–Belmont Trail including moving an existing bridge to a new location.
• Paving the entire three-mile trail to provide a uniform, safe surface from Chestnut Street to the connection with the Platteville–Belmont Trail at the east limits of the City of Platteville.
• Lighting the entire three-mile trail to provide a safe recreational and transportation corridor.
Additional fundraising is continuing through grants, business donations, and other fundraisers.
For more information about Moving Platteville Outdoors or the Rountree Branch Trail, contact Platteville Community Arboretum volunteer Gene Weber, geneweber4@gmail.com, 778-6914, or visit www.plattevillearboretum.org/MPO.
