by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington City Council will be discussing whether or not to apply for a grant to build a hike/bike trail to be looped around Woods Park, south of the Wellington golf course. Eventually, the plans call for the trail to connect Woods Park to Century Park – formerly known as Lions Park, north of the U.S. 160-81 viaduct interchange.

The topic will be one of the many things to be discussed at this week’s regularly scheduled meeting at the council chambers this Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

The city of Wellington has until February to apply for a state Transportation Enhancement Grant to help fund the trails.

Outgoing Wellington City Engineer Larry Mangan told the council at a recent work session that the proposed path will be for walkers, joggers and bicyclers in hopes of keeping them off the highway. It is also a “quality of life” issue for the town he said.

The proposal was endorsed by the Wellington Park Board at its November meeting and was brought to the attention of the council at its work session held last week. The council will decide Tuesday whether it’s a grant worth pursuing.  The estimated cost of the first phase of the project is $409,000 with the state paying 80 percent and the city paying 20 percent if Wellington receives the grant. There was no cost estimates for the path going from Woods to Century.

There is no guarantee that Wellington will receive the grant even if it so desires. The grant is considered “highly competitive,” according to Wellington City Manager Gus Collins.

The project will be built in two phases. The first will loop around the park. The second phase will include a path that will meander out of the northeast corner of the park, around Rock Island Park and eventually cross the highway into the Century Park, located adjacently west of U.S. 81-160 which jogs temporarily in a north-south direction.

It would be a two-phase project. The first phase would be the loop around Woods Park and the second phase would be from Woods to Century. At first the city staff recommended building the path from Century to Woods first, but because of the time factor, it was better to go after funding for the Woods Park loop first. Since the other path will be going through Rock Island Park which is currently owned by the Union Pacific railroad, the city would need permission from the group. That will take considerably more time than the February deadline.

In other agenda items for Tuesday night include:

•discussing the extension of the sanitary sewer contingency upon hotel development occurring at Seneca Road and east U.S. 160 Highway (see story here);

•a supplemental agreement resolution for 15th and A Street to com;

•a public budget hearing for amending the 2012 budget.