By Ed Jones
The River Trail was funded with Covid era federal money as part of a legislative program to fund projects in every state legislative district. The application asked for roughly $800,000 for the trail and some upgrades to the community center. The amount of the request was not based on any detailed study of what the trail might look like, it was merely a reasonable guess as to the cost.
As it turned out, the $750,000 estimate was close to the actual cost of building the trail. But there are other costs, which weren’t accounted for in the application, such as project management, surveying, engineering, designing, and permitting. Those additional costs, typical of post-Covid cost escalation of many design/construction projects, are projected to add another half million dollars to the cost of the trail, leaving a substantial shortfall.
In a conversation about the funding gap with Noel Johnson, the project manager, he told me he expects to be supportive of the efforts to find the additional money but believes the River Trail committee will have to undertake the search. Johnson also reports the project has been accepted to begin the City permit process, though a timeline for approval is not known.
If you have grant writing skills and are interested in helping out the River Trail Committee, please contact
both Noel Johnson at noelallenjohnson@yahoo.com and Susy Kristin, Director of the Linnton Community Center at executivedirector@linnton.com. Contact Susy if you want to see project financial records.