Additional Funding May Be Available to Complete Fairbury City Park Loop Trail Project

By Gordon Hopkins Additional funding may be available for the Fairbury City Park Loop Trail. The question now is if the city will be able to complete the project in time. In 2023 the city was awarded a $300,000 ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also known as the COVID-19 Stimulus Package) EDA (Economic Development Administration) Tourism Grant to install a trail around the City Park. At a council meeting on May 7, 2024, Speece Lewis was contracted for $34,800 to provide services for design of the Park Loop Trail and to assist with application to the Game and Parks Recreational Trail Program (RTP). However, the city was not awarded the RTP grant. Therefore, the city scaled back the scope of the project. City of Fairbury Development Services Director Laura Bedlan explained the situation at a meeting of the Fairbury City Council on Tuesday, September 2, “The full project was scoped to be a sidewalk around city park and then an extension down to third street so we could connect to the sidewalk there, which then takes you over to your third and C Street trail head. And that original project also included lighting.” Without the RTP grant, the City could only do the sidewalk around the City Park. Bedlan said the full project may be possible for the extension and lighting after all, “EDA has reached out to us since then, and they have some surplus funding. They wanted to review our project to see if they could utilize that surplus funding, $150,000 to complete the rest of the project.” “After some review, we believe that we can still get that piece of it done,” said Bedlan.Bedlan noted there is a time crunch, “Unfortunately, there is a drop-dead time frame on this of December 31 of 2025. All work that needs to be done.” That is a concern because the lighting for the project could take 12 to 14 weeks to arrive.The city council voted unanimously to approve going forward with the project.

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