A plan for a bike trail to connect Phelps and Conover has gotten a financial boost.
The DNR’s Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund is awarding the project $120,000. That's about $40,000 more than it initially gave.
Great Headwaters Trail spokesperson Jeff Currie says it will help fund the second portion what should eventually be 11 miles of trail.
“The section it was applied for is the middle section that goes from Muskrat Creek Road, to where Songhill Lane meets County Highway K, on railroad grade that runs north of Highway K.”
The extra dollars mean the second part of the trail is almost halfway funded.
Currie says some of the remaining $250,000 may also be covered through in-kind donation of services.
Meanwhile the first phase of the trail is fully funded, and getting closer to construction.
Currie says the town of Conover received only a single bid from Pitlik and Wick for construction of the first leg of the 11-mile trail, which is slated to cost around $850,000.
“It’s three miles, three miles out of the eleven. It’s the most expensive part of the whole trail, because it includes three creek crossings, two bridges and one double culvert.”
Construction is slated to begin this summer.