| Legislators tour proposed trail |
By: By Kurt Hildebrandt
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Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2009 10:54 am
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ST. PETER — In a collaborative effort, representatives from the cities of St. Peter and Mankato were on hand at the Millpond Park area Thursday morning to meet with a group of touring Minnesota State Legislators. Those legislators are parto of a committee which is considering a $400,000 request for study and design work for a proposed bike trail between the two cities.
The 19 legislators who were on hand are part of the House of Representatives Capital Investment Committee. That committee was in the process of touring west central and southern Minnesota to visit bonding and infrastructure projects seeking state funding help.
The tour was part of the legislator’s preparation for the 2010 Legislative session which is expected to focus heaving on job creation and infrastructure. The proposed Minnesota River bike trail extension between St. Peter and Mankato is one the projects under consideration.
Capital Investment Chair Alice Hausman (DFL Representative to the House for District 66B) led the group on the tour during this stop which included a presentation from St. Peter Community Development Director Russ Wille and Mankato Community Development Director Paul Vogel.
In addition to the official support of both St. Peter and Mankato, other local governments that have gotten behind the request include the county boards of Nicollet County, Blue Earth County and Le Sueur County as well as the city of North Mankato.
Wille and Vogel both outlined how the creation of this bike trail, estimated to be around $2.2 million should it get the go ahead, would connect the vast trail system here in St. Peter with an extensive system of trails already in place in Mankato, the Sakatah trail system and the trails which lead to Rapidan.
A trailhead would be located at the Millpond Park area allowing potential users to park their vehicles there or take advantage of the campgrounds.
Should the state approve the $400,000 request one of the tasks would be to choose one of the three trail options which were developed by Minnesota State University class that did extensive research on the project.
One trail option would be to build one mainly along Highway 22, another option would be on the east side between the Minnesota River and Highway 22 and the third would be on the west side of the river along an old roadway.
The tour group said they would take the information gathered on this trip and use it to decide whether or not to grant the funding request.
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