Photo by Deb Gau Right now, there’s no sidewalk or path along County Road 14 near Tracy Area High School, but the city of Tracy hopes to change that. City representatives said they plan to apply for state grant funding to build a pedestrian and bike trail connecting the high school and Tracy Area Elementary.

MARSHALL — The city of Tracy is hoping to expand its walking and biking trails, and part of the plan would include a safer option for students traveling between Tracy Area Elementary and High School.

This week, the city approached Lyon County to act as a sponsor for two applications for grants from the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Tracy is seeking to build a new off-road trail near Pine Street (Lyon County Road 14), as well as to rehab an existing trail at Swift Lake Park. The projects would be made possible with the help of Safe Routes to School and Active Transportation grants, city representatives said Tuesday.

In two separate votes, county commissioners voted in favor of sponsoring the two grant applications.

Tracy City Administrator Jeff Carpenter said the trail near the schools was one of several different projects the city was working on.

“This is the one that affects the school the most,” he said.

“When you see kids walking on Pine Street, as busy as that is out there, you’ll know why this is the main one that we want to get taken care of,” Carpenter said.

“It’s a good project for the Safe Routes to School grant,” said Lyon County Highway Engineer Aaron VanMoer.

Currently, Pine Street near the high school is marked as a bike route, but there is no sidewalk or existing off-street trail along the roadway.

VanMoer said building the Pine Street project would not only expand Tracy’s trails, but would also give youth a safer route to get to and from the schools.

“You’d have a 10-foot paved trail,” VanMoer said.

The initial plans proposed by the city of Tracy had the trail route about 6 feet back from Pine Street.

“It’s debatable if that’s the right place where it should go, but at this point, it doesn’t have to be spelled out exactly the location of the trail,” he said.

Carpenter said the school would take on the task of keeping the trail clear in the winter.

The Tracy School District owns the property where the bike trail would be built, VanMoer said.

Because Tracy is a small city, they would need the county to act as a fiscal agent for the grant projects.

Carpenter said the Safe Routes to School grant would be a five-year grant.

“So we can do more projects down the road. But right now we’re looking at right around $700,000 this year, because that’s the amount of matching (funds) that we have for the engineering cost,” he said.

Tracy would have a 10% local match for the grant, he said.

Carpenter said other future trail projects Tracy was looking at included trail connections at parks and near the high school baseball field.

“I know there’s going to be a lot of walkers in the city of Tracy that will appreciate this just as much as the kids will,” said Commissioner Rick Anderson.

“I do believe that this is a good project, and it’s a project that we’ll get funded for,” said Commissioner Gary Crowley.