About two years ago, Becky Cooper, recreation officer for the USFS, submitted a grant application for MSTA to the Federal Highway Administration’s Recreation Trails grant program (RTP) for funding to cover construction of roughly 2 miles of trail in the Gateway Trail System. The program had a 10:1 request/funding ratio, so we didn’t get the grant. BUT…the grant administrators said the application got such high marks on all the elements they require that they strongly urged us to reapply.
Last year, Taylor Cole and Daniel Hewitt (USFS) resubmitted the grant after buffing it up even more. We waited and waited and waited until last week, when we were informed that we were granted $200,000 for construction on the planned Cosmic Connector Trail. You can check the location in the Gateway System here. It’s the blue trail in the upper right of the map connecting Vista Point to the Learning Zone.
And the press release for the grant is here if you want the details.
The board of MSTA is extremely excited about this development because it gets us very close to having all 46 miles of Gateway II financed (but we’re not quite all the way there). Kudos and thanks to our USFS partners!!
