Pine Haven pursues bike path grant

A letter of Interest was sent to the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) a couple of weeks ago regarding Pine Haven's plan to again seek funding to continue the bike path through town.

HDR's Heath Turbiville discussed the amount and purpose of the grant at the workshop earlier in the month. Mayor Karla Brandenburg wanted to understand the town's position, "I want to make sure I know what we're going to apply for."

Last year, the town received grant funding that is paying for a feasibility study for the entire project.

"Part of the grant funding we received is to address any environmental concerns and also preliminary survey for the whole route so that is actually preliminary design work," Turbiville said.

Turbiville went on to explain that this study will, "get us to what we call 30% so we can get the side of the road selected and the alignment and roughly see what our impact will be on private property if any and how it affects drainage."

This study will be complete within the next couple of months. He continued, "What we would recommend is to apply for the design money to completely design the entire pathway system."

The mayor clarified what the town could expect, "So basically, the finished product we'll get on this [phase] will be a complete design. We'll actually pick where we're going to put it;" a summarization with which the engineers concurred.

Turbiville then further explained that WYDOT is rewarding the process of feasibility study, complete design and bidding as projects fit within funding limits.

"That's what is coming up with this statement of interest. If you're awarded the funding, we get all the design done and, in the future, we can look to see if there are grant limits in excess of a million," he said.

"Right now, they've doubled the amount they will give in the grant and kept or reduced the match."

The engineers hope to have recommendations before the May workshop.

"The final decision is yours, plus, you have some input into knowing the landowners and which side of the street. We will make some decisions – we can see trees... just the geography," Turbiville explained.

"Then, we'll finalize the report and the final feasibility study will determine where the path will lay. We can take each segment and look at the pros and cons and I can tell you which side [of the street] we recommend... with what we can determine from the survey."

However, rights of way along private land are an issue with which council will have to deal as the process moves forward, according to Turbiville.

"That's the kind of thing for which we have to get a lot further into the design so we know exactly what it is," he said.

"...In some of these instances, because Pine Haven's right-of-ways are fairly narrow and you've got roads with steep slopes and the drainages, you put a path on either side, it's filling a ditch so we need to re-establish that ditch with at least some of it on private property, which will potentially impact trees and landscaping."

He spoke to possible complications, "Worst case for WYDOT is that they give Pine Haven a million dollars for a pathway and you don't have the right-of-way...To improve the odds of receiving the funding, we need to mitigate as many of those concerns as possible. When we get into design, it may improve your chances for construction funding to try to mitigate the rights-of-way before you apply for the construction money."

He suggested the possibility of the town contracting right-of-way agreements with individual owners providing said precedence when funding is in place.

Turbiville and town Clerk/Treasurer Tammie McGovern subsequently met to review and send to WYDOT the Letter of Interest after the meeting.

Brandenburg observed regarding the planned path, "This is going to be really nice once we get it out there."