Decorah City Council approves plan to pay off Trout Run Trail deficit

The Trout Run Trail project's $358,000 deficit will be paid off by the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

The Decorah City Council Monday night approved a plan to use $118,000 in this year's hotel/motel tax funds and then $80,000 a year for the next three years in hotel.motel tax funds to pay off the $358,000 balance.

The balance of hotel/motel tax funds generated during the next three years will be used to pay for tourism promotion and for parks & recreation projects.  City officials wanted to make sure there was still some available money for those uses, so they rejected an earlier proposal to use all of the hotel/motel tax funds each year.

Monday night's vote follows a city council vote in October 2011 supporting the notion of using the hotel/motel tax funds to pay off the trail project deficit.  At that time, it was thought the deficit would be $240,000.

City officials are also recommending the trail project be closed to any future activity as of next June 30th and that any future spending on trail-related projects be handled through the city's parks & recreation budget, the county's conservation board budget, or the budget of the joint city-county 28e committee that directly oversees Trout Run Trail.