The city of Columbus is pursuing a grant for the opening phase of a walking trail planned to stretch from the Soccer Complex to Logan’s Roadhouse on North 18th Avenue.
City councilmen unanimously approved a resolution in support of the grant application during Tuesday’s meeting, after approving the application for the grant itself in February.
Interim City Planner George Irby, who presented the grant application to the council, told The Dispatch the trail will follow Moore’s Creek, which runs north-and-south between Highway 82 and Sixth Street North.
“We had some options to take it to the Magnolia Bowl or Lee Park, but this particular project is to take it to the Soccer Complex,” Irby said. “We call it the Moore’s Creek trail.”
Kevin Stafford, city engineer and vice president of the Neel-Schaffer engineering firm, said the trail will be a little more than a mile long, at 5,750 feet. The city will work on the trail in phases, as the grant is not large enough to completely build the trail in one step.
Funding for the trail, if the grant application is approved, will come through the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks’ Recreational Trails Program. Stafford said that grant provides up to $120,000, with a 30-percent match in funds or in-kind services from the city. The trail’s first phase will cost $150,000, Stafford said.
He also noted the initial phase will stretch from the Soccer Complex to the Cracker Barrel restaurant, with the final portion to Logan’s Roadhouse to be added later.
For the project’s first phase, the city will clear out grass for the path between the Soccer Complex and Cracker Barrel. Stafford said that will make way for the concrete to be added later, and leave a dirt trail that will be paved over when more funding is available.
The pattern is a familiar one for the city, Stafford said, as it has used the grant three times in the past five to seven years for the Riverwalk downtown.
“We’ve done this before,” Stafford said. “When we extended the Riverwalk, we used the same grant to clear it and put down the base. The second time, we put down concrete, and the third time we put in lighting and amenities.”
The city should know if the grant has been approved in the late spring or early summer.
From there, Stafford said the first phase should take about seven months, with two months for design, two months for advertising and awarded contracts, two months for construction and one month to close out contracts.
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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