The Luverne Loop will get a financial boost for its final trail segments, thanks to a Parks and Trails Legacy grant in the amount of $839,300.
Luverne Economic Development Authority Director Holly Sammons updated the EDA board on the funding that will complete Phase 3B and Phase 4 of the Luverne Loop.
“It’s an exciting grant,” she said during the Nov. 9 meeting. “We’ve been enjoying the trail locally, but once it’s completed, it will allow us to market the Loop to visitors, and we’ll start to see the economic benefit of tourism.”
The Greater Minnesota Parks and Trails Commission recommended to the state legislature that Luverne’s project be funded through the Department of Natural Resources, which awards and administers the legacy grants.
Phase 3B is a .98-mile segment of new construction from the Rock River through RIM (Reinvest in Minnesota) property to the future Towne Square Development at Freeman and Hatting.
Here it will meet with a completed portion of the Loop that runs along the hotel property after crossing Highway 75 by Security Savings Bank.
Phase 4 addresses the .76-mile segment on the north end by Sanford Hospital where the existing 5-foot-wide sidewalk will be replaced by 10-foot wide paving.
This phase will connecting the Phase 1 Loop with the Blue Mounds Trail at 131st Street and Blue Mound Avenue.
Sammons said the trail work has been funded primarily by grants since work first began in 2012, but the recent Parks and Trails Legacy Grant is the most significant of them all.
In 2016 the Luverne Loop and Blue Mounds Trail were designated as a trail of regional significance and received a $150,000 DNR Local Trail Connections Grant- Phase 1
In 2018 the Loop was awarded a $598,056 MN DOT Transportation Alternatives Grant for Phase 2 work.
In 2020 the Loop received another $150,000 DNR Local Trail Connections Grant, this time for Phase 3A.
The final work will be completed with the $839,300 Parks and Trails Legacy Grant.
Mayor Pat Baustian said the grant award was good news for the city and for future tourism.
“Great work, Holly,” he said. “You’ve done a phenomenal job grant writing. What a success story.”
Contract signing, environmental review and final engineering will happen in 2021.
A bid-letting is targeted for winter-spring of 2021-22 with construction in the summer of 2022.