Blacktail Trail is one quarter of the way to meeting community match fund
Lakeside Elementary students and teachers have been awarded a Safe Routes to Schools grant for next year. Working toward a SAFE (safe activities for everyone) Lakeside, a small committee is fundraising for the Blacktail Trail project and then will continue with this newly awarded grant next year to offer opportunities for students to learn about how to safely travel as pedestrians and bicyclists with incentives for kids and their families to get outside more.
Once completed, the trail will extend from downtown Lakeside to Youth With A Mission and includes a pedestrian bridge across Stoner Creek.
The grant will also fund an engineered study of downtown Lakeside to within two miles of the elementary school to see what could be done to make it safer for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Nearly one quarter of the necessary $40,000 community match has been raised so far for the Community Transportation Enhancement Program, CTEP, funds of $300,000 to be allocated to the Blacktail Trail. The deadline for the community match is July 31.
The grant applications that have been sent out will help meet the $40,000 goal and several local businesses are coming up with their own ideas of ways to host fundraisers to help.
The SAFE committee has been soliciting raffle items and contacting businesses that are planning events to help promote the trail. The committee has also been writing grant applications and working towards fundraising events to meet the community match fund requirements.
Support is heating up and SAFE invites all businesses to get involved, volunteers to help get the word out, sell raffle tickets, help with events, and to make direct donations to the non-profit Lakeside Community Development Fund, Box 1002, Lakeside, MT 59922.
SAFE asks that direct donations be designated as “TRAIL”. Every dollar donated will be increased seven times by the CTEP grant.
For more information about SAFE, contact Johanna Bangeman at traillink@yahoo.com or call 844-3954.