.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} What do you get for the couple who has everything? For Bob and Ann Fleming of Carlisle, their children thought buying them a bridge to cross the North River would be just the ticket.

Actually, what the Flemings’ three sons did last fall was donate $10,000 to the city of Carlisle on their behalf to be used toward erecting a pedestrian bridge across the river at the Scotch Ridge Center conservation area. The project would allow the Summerset Trail that extends from Indianola to Carlisle to eventually be connected with Greater Des Moines’ trail system and the Principal Riverwalk.

The project is a key element in the development of the Scotch Ridge Center, a recreational area taking shape along a 47-acre flood plain skirting the Iowa Highway 5 bypass in Carlisle. The area, which encompasses four types of native ecosystems, also plays a central role in Carlisle’s strategy for capitalizing on its natural amenities as it prepares for growth, said Mayor Ruth Randleman.

“We see this whole thing turning into a quality-of-life kind of asset that corporations and people looking for good locations for a business will consider over other locations,” she said.

At the same time, Carlisle is beginning two large water and sewer extension projects this year that promise to open up large swaths of new land for commercial and residential development, beginning with parcels along the Highway 5 bypass on the city’s west side.

A crew from the Underground Co. works to install a water main near the Scotch Ridge Center in Carlisle. The work is part of a $180,000 water line extension project that was approved by the City Council in February. Photo by Duane Tinkey

There is evidence that the completion of the bypass through the city has already spurred additional growth. Carlisle has more land under development, 139 acres, than it has had in the past several years, City Administrator Neil Ruddy said.

The largest single development under way is Danamere Farms, a 95-acre conservation community designed by Hubbell Realty Co. Three houses have been built so far in the first plat of a subdivision that’s expected to have 195 homes when it’s built out over the next 15 years. The development is designed so that about 40 percent of the land is planted with prairie grasses to minimize water runoff and create a more natural setting.

Bob Fleming, whose farmstead had included the acreage that’s now the Scotch Ridge Center as well as the land on which Danamere Farms is being developed, said he sold the latter parcel to Hubbell on the condition that the development would be conservation-friendly, “and they went along with that.”

Fleming, who last year planted 20 acres of native seedlings on the Scotch Ridge land along Highway 5, said he’s hopeful the bridge project will be successful.

Rather than purchasing a prefabricated bridge, Carlisle officials hope to be able to dismantle and move an existing bridge near Indianola. That bridge, scheduled for replacement by Warren County next year, would otherwise be demolished and sold for scrap after it’s replaced.

Carlisle officials hope to be able to move this steel bridge to the Scotch Ridge Center after it is replaced by a new structure next year. The bridge is located on 150th Street, about one mile south of Indianola. Photo by Duane Tinkey

“It’s an attractive project because we can get the bridge at no cost,” said Ruddy. “We just have to figure out how to get it from where it is to where we want it.” The cost to move and install the existing bridge is estimated at about $250,000; Ruddy guessed that a new bridge would cost at least that much.

Within the next three months, city officials hope to have an annexation completed that includes the Scotch Ridge Center acreage, along with about 200 acres of mostly agricultural land on the city’s east side. Now that it’s bisected by Highway 5, land on both sides of the highway has already attracted the attention of developers.

At the same time, work has begun on the first phase of a planned seven-stage water-line extension project. A $180,000 project approved in February will extend the water main west to Highway 5. A second phase, not yet approved, would extend water service north along Southeast 52nd Avenue to Army Post Road. The city also hopes to begin soliciting bids by June for a $2.8 million sewer extension project.

Don Bartholomew is among the developers waiting for that infrastructure to be completed along Highway 5. He and a partner, David Wright, are planning a 14-acre business park on the south side of the highway, east of 150th Avenue. People’s Savings Bank has already purchased one of the parcels and plans to locate a branch there.

“We’ve had quite a bit of interest, but we can’t do much of anything until that infrastructure is available,” Bartholomew said. “So we’re waiting to see what happens in the next 12 months or so.”

Across the highway to the north, another 80-acre parcel that’s part of the annexed area has been designated by the city for mixed commercial-residential development.

Randleman said the city’s infrastructure development plans have not been without criticism.

“One thing we get asked at our meetings is, ‘Why are you building all this new stuff when the old stuff isn’t up to snuff?’ That’s a hard one to answer, because you have to have the tax base and the general fund to do some of the projects you need to do to get the old stuff [improved]. So we need to spend the bucks to make sure we’re an attractive community so we can fix up the old stuff.”

The city has received more than $2.62 million in federal earmarks to help fund a large portion of the planned pedestrian trail extensions for the Scotch Ridge Center, Ruddy said. The challenge, he said, will be to structure the spending of the earmarks “without having a negative impact on the city’s tax rates.”

Ruddy said Carlisle hopes to tap state funding sources, such as the Iowa Great Places program, to come up with the approximately $600,000 local match required to receive the federal money. The alternative would be to seek a new bond issue in 2010, when some of the city’s existing debt is retired, he said. The city is also exploring ways to come up with funding to either move the existing bridge or to build a new one at the Scotch Ridge Center.

In addition to coming up with the resources needed to grow, Carlisle will also need to promote a different image than it has projected in the past, Randleman said.

“Our image has had a problem in the past as not being real gung-ho on growth and change, because we are a small community and very residential,” she said. “We’re going to have to change that to not only survive, but thrive, and that’s kind of a hurdle. Once you get kind of an image, it takes a while to get past that.”