Belle officials meet with MSP about $ 218,000 RTP grant

By Roxie Murphy, Staff Writer
Posted 11/30/22

BELLE — Belle city officials met with Missouri State Parks on Tuesday afternoon about a $175,194 Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grant to begin building a Rock Island Trail through the city …

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Belle officials meet with MSP about $ 218,000 RTP grant

Posted

BELLE — Belle city officials met with Missouri State Parks on Tuesday afternoon about a $175,194 Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grant to begin building a Rock Island Trail through the city limits.

The city was awarded the grant on Nov. 15 and State Parks officials met to guide them on how to begin the process of building the Rock Island Trail.

“We’re eager to get started,” said Mayor Daryl White, Jr. “It’s obviously going to take some time. Hopefully we can source as much local and move on from there.”

Alderman Jeanette Struemph was the only ward representative present.

“We’re a small town city and we are going to have to work on a small town scale,” Struemph said. “We don’t have millions of dollars.”

In its grant application the city agreed to contribute $43,799 towards the 80/20 grant with funds and in-kind match. The estimated total cost of the project is $218,993 with an optional 25 percent increase request if more funds are available.

“I want to source as much as local as possible,” White said. “I want to keep every dollar we can keep in the city of Belle. We have some of the best tradesmen that live in town that can build it for us. We don’t need to outsource it to Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield.”

The meeting with six State Parks officials was one hour and 11 minutes long. Officials shared steps the city may take to meet the six month deadline to get started. 

Watch for the full report of the meeting in next week’s Advocate.