DEXTER — The Dexter Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a resolution during a special meeting Friday morning giving city officials permission to apply for grant funding for phase three of the city’s trail project.
“We have applied for a Missouri Department of Natural Resources trail grant, and it is due” on Feb. 15, explained City Administrator Mark Stidham.
The application, he said, requires a resolution from the Board of Aldermen “saying they are on board with it … gives us permission to apply.”
Stidham said the resolution lets the Department of Natural Resources “know we’ve got a commitment from the board to match (funding) if we get that grant.”
The city upped “our (match) percentage to increase our chances” of being awarded the grant, Stidham said.
Stidham said the city’s match will be 21 percent.
“What we are trying to do is take (advantage) of all the available resources out there to make our trail go farther,” Stidham explained.
Should the city’s application be approved, “it will tie on to our other grants,” Stidham said. “We’ll just tie right on (to the trail) and go.”
Following the recent awarding of the contract, construction is expected to begin in the spring on phase one of the trail project.
The trail, according to earlier reports, will start on Business 60 at First State Bank and come back down to West Park, cross by the Stoddard County EMS office and go down Arvin Road to One Mile Road.
The project is being funded by a TAP (Transportation Alternative Program) grant from the Missouri Department of Transportation and matching money from the city.
The city also recently learned it had received approval for phase two of the TAP grant. The project was selected to receive federal funding of $368,848. The total project cost is $576.325.
Phase two will run from One Mile Road to Sycamore Street and then down to Arvin Road.
The city’s match for phase two will be 36 percent as compared to its 20-percent match on phase one.
Stidham stressed this is “just an application. We’ve not been accepted.
“We applied for this same grant last year. We were not approved.”
A lot of communities, he said, apply for these grants.
“We’re going to keep applying for it every year until we do get it … to make our trail go farther,” he said.