This spring I reported on the new Northaven Trail that is planned for our neighborhood. Construction of the 1.5-mile trail from Northaven to Hillcrest was slated to start this winter, but the budget snafu has put the breaks on that.
“Typically, when we get money for a trail it comes in two parts: one for the design and one of the construction,” park board member Lee Kleinman told me today. “The bond money for the actual design did sell recently, and we’ve contracted a firm to do the entire design. It will connect to White Rock Creek Trail, we’re just not exactly sure how yet. The bonds for construction were slated to sell in the fall of 2010, but now it’s looking like that won’t likely happen until the spring of 2011.”
The delay in bond sales, he said, is so the city doesn’t have to pay interest on them. After those bonds are sold in the spring, it’ll be about another six weeks before the city gets a construction bid. So the earliest we’d see groundbreaking would be summertime.
And although he said it’s little premature to bank on it, there’s a chance the county may kick in some money to help with construction. Kleinman says it’s still early in negotiation process, but I’ll keep you posted on what develops.
