NORTHAMPTON — The Baker-Polito administration has announced an award of $685,133 in grants through the National Park Service’s Land and Water Conservation Fund Grant Program, $200,000 of which is going to the creation of the Rocky Hill Greenway Trail. In Massachusetts, the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs administers the grants on behalf of the National Park Service.
“It’s a federal grant, but the state has to make a recommendation,” said Wayne Feiden, the city’s director of planning and sustainability.
Feiden said that the state made its recommendation this summer, and that the city had been waiting on the federal side.
“We’ve been crossing our fingers since the summer,” he said.
The other three projects being funded by the money are also trail-related. They consist of the creation of the Ruth Elizabeth Park Connector Trail in Springfield, the renovation of the Camp Kiwanis Girl Scout Property in Tyngsborough and improvements to the Tetasset Hills Trail network in Worcester.
“We are proud to be able to partner with four Massachusetts communities to fund their priority trail projects and provide residents more opportunities to enjoy healthy, recreational activity outdoors,” said Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton, in a release announcing the grants.
The Rocky Hill Greenway Trail is set to be a 0.75-mile non-motorized trail near the Burts Bog Greenway. Feiden said that the city has been expanding its trail system for a decade.
“This is a next step in that process,” said Feiden, noting that it will be a project in a more rural part of the city.
The grant is a 50 percent matching grant, and will reimburse the city 50 percent of what it spends on the project up to $200,000. A request for Community Preservation Act Funds has already been submitted by the city, which would match the grant on the city’s end, although some money for design work on the trail was already included in this fiscal year’s Capital Improvement Plan. Should the CPA request be approved, construction would begin in July.
Feiden said that a lot of neighborhoods in the vicinity of the trail don’t readily connect with other neighborhoods, and he said that the trail would change this. As an example, he noted how currently it’s difficult to walk to the Ryan Road School from the Burts Pit Road neighborhood.
He also said that the trail will allow for easy access to conservation areas.
Feiden said that care will be taken to make the trail have “universal accessibility,” and that this will include benches along it to make it easier to use for people with physical disabilities.
The plan is to have the trail finished by June 30, 2020, when the grant will expire. Feiden said that the eventual goal will be to connect it with the bike trail system, although he said that would a 15-year project.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.