MARSHALL — The city of Marshall is seeking some additional grant funding to help build a shared-use path near Marshall Middle School and Southview Elementary.

On Tuesday, Marshall City Council members voted in support of the city’s grant application.

“This has been kind of a problem area, as far as getting a comfortable bike path, pedestrian path put in,” said council member Craig Schafer. “I think it’s really good that we make some more effort at improving that. I think that would be a really good addition to that portion of our trail system.”

Marshall has plans for the trail project in 2025, said city Public Works Ddirector Jason Anderson.

“This project is a connection of existing bike trail systems,” Anderson said. The new trail segment would start near C Street and Progress Drive, and run past both MMS and Southview Elementary, before turning onto Southview Drive. The project map also includes a branch of the path leading to the elementary school.

In 2020, Marshall received almost $400,000 in federal grant funding to build the trail link, Anderson said. However, that won’t cover the whole cost of the project.

“Because the project estimate is now over $700,000, the difference there is all local,” Anderson said.

Anderson said Marshall is applying for state Active Transportation Grant funds to help “bridge the gap” and cover the remaining cost of the project. If the city doesn’t receive additional grant funding, the remaining cost of the project would likely come from Marshall’s municipal state aid street funds, he said.

In order to show support for the grant application, the city needed to pass two separate resolutions. One resolution would make the city the sponsoring agency for the grant, and the other would identify the city as being responsible for maintaining the path.

Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said he needed to abstain from voting on the resolutions because he was a member of the Minnesota Active Transportation Advisory Committee.

In separate actions, council members voted to pass the resolutions. For both resolutions, both Byrnes and council member See Moua-Leske abstained from voting.