Adrian's Island once again seems close to becoming reachable.
The long-discussed Adrian's Island project resurfaced this past summer after Jefferson City resident B.J. DeLong donated $50,000 to pay for preliminary design work on a bridge to access the property.
Adrian's Island is actually a peninsula between the Capitol building and the Missouri River that developed as settling sand and riverbottom accumulated from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' rock dikes built in the 1960s to maintain a 9-foot minimum channel depth.
Since the summer donation, local engineering company Bartlett & West has been doing the preliminary work and presented the results at Monday's meeting of the Jefferson City Council.
Bob Gilbert, with Bartlett & West, presented four options of accessing the island, all overhead, with costs ranging from $2.9 million to $3.59 million. The four options for access were near the House of Representatives garage, near the Veteran's Memorial, off the Madison Street overlook or off the Lafayette Street cul-de-sac.
Gilbert said the preferred option is the one near the Veteran's Memorial, which comes with a price tag of $2.99 million. Gilbert said they wanted to have the trail begin near the Capitol and the Veteran's Memorial was the cheaper of the two options that were near the Capitol.
"Both of the options near the Capitol were very advantageous," Gilbert said.
Gilbert said the trail would begin near the Senate garage and the Veteran's Memorial and would be a 10-foot wide concrete trail that slowly goes down to grade and curves toward the landing on Adrian's Island.
The access would go over the Union Pacific railroad tracks and Gilbert said they've already begun working with Union Pacific. Gilbert also said they already have met with the state and received approval to proceed with the Veteran's Memorial option.
After the initial presentation, Mayor Carrie Tergin noted no one was requesting further public funds be used for the project and said the project likely only needs about $1 million more to reach its goal.
Gilbert said they are working on securing more donations to the project to get to the full $2.99 million needed and, if they can secure those funds, construction on the access could begin next fall.
"This is not far away," Gilbert said of the project.
Jefferson City already has about $473,000 in sales tax funds dedicated to a "riverfront park." The Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department has about $226,000 in riverfront-related trail money. And there is the Deborah Cooper Foundation for Riverfront Development, which was formed in the 1980s and has about $140,000 in it.
Those funds combined would be able to cover roughly $840,000 of the cost. Then there's the rest of DeLong's contribution.
DeLong has made clear the $50,000 she already donated is not all she has available for the project. She has declined to specify the amount, but has said she believes between money she has set aside for Adrian's Island and interest she has received from other possible benefactors, along with the funds already identified, the cost for access could be covered.
And once the bridge is built, the property would only be developed passively, meaning the area largely would be trails and a park-like setting. Parks Director Bill Lockwood has said he believes Adrian's Island could be developed and maintained almost entirely on volunteer labor, after the access is put in.
At the end of the council meeting Monday, Joe Wilson, known to many for his work at the river in North Jefferson City, urged the council to carefully consider all aspects of this project before moving forward. While noting he is in favor of the project as a whole, he said several issues need to be addressed, including access for emergency equipment, bathrooms and litter.
"We want to try to look at the pluses and the minuses before we go down the river," Wilson said.
"I'm trying to help."