Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RICHARD JENKINS
Hurley — The effort to expand the local non-motorized trail system into Iron County got a boost, as the Iron County Regional Trail Committee learned Thursday the Gogebic Range Health Foundation had awarded a grant.
The $11,000 matching grant will go to the purchase of a two-block strip of land that runs parallel to Silver Street, between U.S. 51 and the Montreal River. The land is intended to bring the local section of the Iron Belle Trail — which will ultimately run between Belle Isle in Detroit and Ironwood, but locally is only built from the Montreal River to Bessemer — into Hurley and serve as a trailhead for the city.
Ultimately, the committee hopes to extend the trail to Cary Park, and then on to the city of Montreal.
While the city of Hurley, which will actually receive the grant, had previously received a $25,000 Coastal Management Grant from the state of Wisconsin, that is only for title research and planning efforts and can’t be used for site acquisition.
The committee also agreed to seek an extension for the Coastal Management grant, which also has $25,000 in local matching funds attached to it. Around $10,000 has been spent on title work so far, with the grant’s deadline approaching at the end of June.
The committee also learned the cost to purchase the property from the rail company that owns it might be significantly lower than expected. Information was presented indicating the rail company had accepted the city’s offer of $5,000 for the two-block section, however another hiccup in the process has appeared, as the documents sent by the rail company seem to indicate a different understanding of the exact boundaries of land being sold.
It was agreed Hurley Mayor Joe Pinardi will work to clarify the issue, and reach out to a surveyor to complete a survey the rail company requested.
