Hurley looks to build trail to school

By CHARITY SMITH

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Hurley — The Hurley School District is looking into building a trail along Range View Drive and Tenth Avenue into town to provide children with a safe path to walk or bike to and from school.

The proposed path would go east from the school on Range View Drive to Tenth Avenue and then follow Tenth Avenue south to Oak Street, which is a block away from Riccelli Park.

“It would provide kids or community members a safe walking path and bike path on the way to school or, if they were going to Riccelli Park, it would provide that as well,” said district superintendent Kevin Genisot.

“Any wetlands would have a 12-foot-wide boardwalk and any area that was not designated as a wetland would have a blacktop path that is 10 feet wide,” said Genisot.

The district is in the process of applying for a Transportation Alternatives Program grant, formerly known as the Safe Routes to School grant, to cover the cost. The district has reached out to three different engineering firms for estimates on construction costs, as is required by the grant.

Genisot said the problem they are having is that there is a large discrepancy between the estimates.

“The committee is going back over those proposals to see why there is such a discrepancy between the proposals,” said Genisot. “Some of them didn’t put engineering costs. ...We need apples to apples, and that’s what we are trying to get.”

He said the committee is hoping the cost is closer to the $800,000 estimate, because they don’t believe there would be a high probability of getting the grant with a $2 million price tag.

The school wrote a Safe Routes to School grant 12 years ago, but the grant was not approved. Genisot said the district started talking about it again in November and decided it would be a good idea to apply.

Genisot said the conversation started after the city received $500,000 to widen Range View Drive.

“If you travel down Tenth, you can’t fit two cars and a walker, so it would be nice to have that be a safe route to school for kids,” said Genisot.

“It’s a big undertaking to write it, but we felt it’s really important, because if we miss this cycle, we have to wait two years to apply again,” said Genisot.

The application is due this month. The school could find out in April if the grant was approved.