Greetings and welcome to 2026! As I write this letter in early January, we are in the full grip of winter. Talk about brrrrrrr... The days are short and sunlight feels scarce. However, with snow on the ground, and still plenty of Christmas lights up, entire neighborhoods somehow feel illuminating at night. ‘Tis the season to be thankful and set resolutions, so here we go! I’ll start by being thankful for community support for our Valley-to-Eastside Expansion Project (VEEP). W

Since the acquiring of land on Valley Road, and the railroad path out to Eastside Road, plus the City’s plan to pave and light the trail segment to Mitchell Hollow Road (Phase 1), the PCA intends to also grow the $418,000 in endowed funds to $625,000 in 2026. Doing so will enable PCA to draw up to $25,000 per year for significant growth, expansion and large maintenance projects. This will come from the endowment proceeds and never from the principal. What is an endowment? A f

For two days this past September, the volunteers of the Platteville Community Arboretum (PCA) hosted the 3rd Accessible Trail Tour. This idea was derived from Tom Loeffelholz and Ron Weier in 2023: Provide a way for people to see the trail who have mobility issues. However, this only happens with the generosity of Platteville citizens. The golf carts are donated for the day by private cart owners who typically use them at the Platteville Golf & Country Club. Some of these own

This past fall, Sue Kies, Sassy’s Vacation  author, again enjoyed reading her book and visiting with Andrea Ackerman and Tonya Kopp’s Cuba City first graders. Sue, a retired Platteville High School English teacher, shared her childhood experience that led her to write about Sassy and how she went about putting the story together with illustrator Ric Genthe. "Elementary schools celebrate books and reading daily, to have a local author connect and share their story (especially

Installed in June 2023, the three trail counters have collected 31 months of data. Remember that the counters cannot count everyone because people normally walk, run, and even bike next to each other. This means the infrared beam may only “see” one user go by because it only detected one break of the beam. An educated guess is that the true number of users is about 25% more than what the data shows. Here's a quick look at the data from the summer months in a few charts:   Sum

Thanks to our 2025 Trail Blazers, which includes all donors to the Valley-to-Eastside Expansion Project:   $30,000 Cindy Tang $20,000 James Harms Platteville Community Fund $15,000 Carol Nelson $10,000 Max Anderson Anonymous (3) Pat & Bob Clare Culver's Frozen Custard Mandi & Joe Jacquinot Emily & Douglas Knox Caroline & Bruce Kroll Reeves Wealth Management at Edward Jones $5,000 Anonymous Valerie & Jordan Kopac Lori & Brian Laufenberg Camille & Robert Lowe Nies Kids Charitab

When passing the trailhead near Delta 3 in the spring, summer or fall, you have likely noticed the lovely garden west of the trail kiosks. This garden is tended by Marsha McDermott of Platteville. Marsha filled her plot with native plants, such as rattlesnake master, cardinal flower, native geranium, Ohio spiderwort, anaphalis, and blazing star. A few years ago, Rountree Branch flooded and took out much of Marsha’s garden. She replanted her natives and added some tall grasses

Tess and Jim Krog have been volunteers on the Wednesday morning crew for four years. They are one of several married couples who do this. You know what they say, “The family that works the trail together makes the world beautiful together.” That’s not quite how the saying goes, but, nonetheless, it’s true. Tess & Jim Depending on the season, Tess and Jim help plant bushes, load and spread mulch, remove invasive species like honeysuckle and garlic mustard, and weed the trail g

Phases 1-4 of the replacing the gravelly trail from the Rountree Branch Trail, over Mitchell Hollow Road, through Moundview Park, and connecting to Fairfield Drive Gravelly trail segment south of Mitchell Hollow Road that connects to the trail There’s a tentative plan to pave and light this trail section in 2026. This was made possible by DOT/DNR awards approved in 2023 totaling $515,841. Per DOT, this project cannot be awarded until July 1, 2026. ( This was originally report