DAYTON — A new occasion center with a restaurant and occasion space will be constructed on the Dayton Rodeo Grounds with the assistance of a newly awarded state grant.

On Monday, the city of Dayton and the Dayton Neighborhood Club have been awarded a Location Iowa grant from the Iowa Financial Improvement Authority for improvements to the Dayton Oak Park Trails Rodeo and Events Center.

The $800,000 Location Iowa grant represents 34 % of the total project investment of $two,372,703, according to a press release from the IEDA.

“It’s going to be a neat location,” Dayton Mayor Dave Bills stated. “This will be a wonderful addition.”

Bills stated the objective is to enhance the website — which also involves the Oak Park Golf Course — and bring in additional guests as effectively as providing the neighborhood additional selections to use the space.

“It’ll be for weddings and birthday parties and what ever else we can post up there,” he stated. “A superior location for the citizens from the surrounding neighborhood to have a good location to go and love all the stuff we have up right here.”

The city’s premiere occasion, the annual Dayton Championship Rodeo, is held every Labor Day weekend and Bills stated he hopes to be capable to host a dance in the new occasion center in the course of the rodeo.

The restaurant, Bills stated, would give locals a different selection for lunch and dinner.

The building of the new occasion center will coincide with the county’s bike trails project in Dayton, Bills stated. More than the final 3 years, Webster County Conservation has been functioning on a county-wide bike trails project. In Dayton, the trail will run by way of the city and to the Oak Park and Rodeo Grounds location.

“It’s going to be a wonderful advantage for the persons who come to town and ride the bike trail to have locations to cease and cool off and get some thing to drink or possibly a tiny lunch,” Bills stated.

Bills stated he’s grateful for the assistance from the IEDA with this Location Iowa grant.

“It’s clearly made for smaller sized communities that want to develop and have an attraction and hopefully bring additional persons in from about the state of Iowa,” he stated.

Bills credited state Sen. Jesse Green, R-Boone, and Webster County Supervisor Mark Campbell for their assistance of these good quality of life improvement projects in Dayton.

Particulars for the project are nevertheless becoming nailed down, but Bills stated he hopes to have engineers functioning on the plans just before the finish of this year.

This was the seventh and final round of Location Iowa grant awards. The plan is a $115 million investment the state is producing to bolster the good quality of life in Iowa’s communities and attract guests and new residents to the state. In total, Location Iowa awards have been granted to 46 projects across the state. In an earlier round of grants, Webster County Conservation and the city of Fort Dodge have been awarded a $four million grant for the improvement of the River’s Edge Discovery Center.

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