SIKESTON — City officials are seeking funding for the next phase of the Rail Trail.
During Monday’s Sikeston City Council meeting, Council approved applying for MoDOT’s Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) in order to fund some of the next phase of the Rail Trail.
The first phase of the Rail Trail was completed in 2019 and runs from the west end of the Sikeston Depot at Malone Avenue in Downtown Sikeston and ends at Main Street. Now, if Sikeston receives approval for the funding, they can extend the trail to the west.
“You can request up to $400,000 of federal reimbursed funds and you have to have a minimum match of 20%,” said Jay Lancaster, director of Sikeston Public Works. “This is the program we used to build the trail along North West for school walkers and it’s also what we did the first phase of the rail trail.”
With this funding, Lancaster said he would like to start at Scott Street and work west.
“Ideally, we would go west all the way to Sunset but based on funding allowed, that gets us over budget, so we are scaling back and looking at a loose target of around North West Street,” Lancaster said. “After looking at that and having a lot of conversations with the folks from Lincoln University, we are going to pencil in some potential alternates and options and extending the trail past North West and tying it into Lincoln.”
Lancaster said there is a lot of desire from Lincoln University, which is building a new building a few blocks west of North West Street, to tie their sidewalks into the city’s Rail Trail.
Lancaster said they are looking at spending somewhere in the $450,000-500,000 range, and about $80,000-90,000 of that would be a local match that wouldn’t be on the budget until the next budget year.
Council unanimously approved going forward with the application, which is due on Friday.
In other business, Council:
• Approved a 5-year lease with GFI Digital in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, for a photocopier for City Hall at a lease price of $270.81 per month.
• Approved entering into a contract with Piper Sandler out of St. Louis to become the municipal financial advisor for the City of Sikeston.
• Decided to begin holding in-person meetings again. The next Sikeston City Council meeting will be at 5 p.m. Monday at the Clinton Building. The meeting will be open to the public, and masks are required.