Wahoo receives $576K for Wanahoo trail!
WHS students active in supporting proposal
Launch the media gallery 1 player(Source: please click HERE to view the original article on the Wahoo Newspaper website)
WAHOO – The City of Wahoo as well as trail supporters got some good news last week.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission announced that it had approved funding of $575,728 for a City of Wahoo trail project. The federal funding comes through the Recreational Trails Program (RTP) and will be used to build an 10,800 foot trail that will connect the city to Lake Wanahoo State Recreation Area.
The RTP funds will cover 80 percent of $719,685 project costs. The project will include a 10-foot wide limestone trail and a 90-foot long bridge that will be used by pedestrians and bicyclists.
Wahoo City Administrator Melissa Harrell said the remainder of the funding for this project will come from the City of Wahoo and the Wahoo Community Foundation.
This project is just one phase of Wahoo’s overall plan for a trail system.
“This is a part of trail that is included in our Master Trail Plan,” Harrell said. “We received RTP Funds to construct the first phase of this connection through Placek Park and Cook’s Park several years ago. This will be a continuation of that trail out to Lake Wanahoo, as shown on the Master Trails Plan.”
The city will work on the design for this phase this spring and summer. The goal is to have construction take place during 2016.
When the application for funding was sent to the Game and Parks Commission last year, Harrell said a lot of supporting documentation went along with it. Almost 100 pages of the application were letters of support written by residents, businesses and students.
“I would say in all the grant applications I have submitted, this is the one that had the greatest community support,” Harrell said.
Participants in a walk/run at Lake Wanahoo wrote letters of support as did students from Wahoo High School. The Lower Platte North Natural Resources District lent their support and a video in support of the project was made by Wahoo Public Schools physical education class.
“We really believe all the community support helped get our project selected for funding out of the many other great projects that were submitted,” Harrell stated.
The Wanahoo trail project was one of only seven to receive RTP funding, and it was the second largest. The Game and Parks’ $643,200 project to build an all-terrain vehicle park at Ash Hollow State Historical Park near Lewellen was the only project to receive more funding.
The Lower Platte South Natural Resources District was awarded $364,014 to build a 4,950-foot-long, 10-foot-wide concrete trail, connecting two trails on the Oak Creek and Salt Creek levee in Lincoln.
The Commission met in Lincoln on Jan. 15 and made the funding announcements.
Anyone wishing to donate money to help with the Lake Wanahoo trail costs, may do so through the Chamber of Commerce, who oversees the Wahoo Community Foundation.
The video produced by the high school physical education class is available for viewing below.