Mukilteo hopes to extend trail
Published 6:40 pm Monday, December 20, 2010
MUKILTEO — The Big Gulch trail could grow a bit bigger with a state grant.
The Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition has announced that $220,000 could go toward building the last undeveloped link in the trail system.
The money would pay for building about two-thirds of a mile of natural trails for people on foot or bicycle.
“If we get the grant, I imagine we would build it next year,” assistant city engineer Jim Niggemyer said.
The Legislature still has to approve the request during next year’s session.
The proposed trail in Mukilteo would go through Big Gulch — so named because it’s the largest of the city’s many gulches. The new trail would help connect residential neighborhoods with 92nd Street Park, the Mukilteo Library and nearby schools.
The grant money would pay for a section between the western edge of an existing trail that stretches west up to Mukilteo’s sewage treatment plant. The new trail would head through wooded areas.
“It will be a trail that will offer views and access to areas that are currently very difficult to get to,” said Larry Waters, Mukilteo’s public works director.
The eventual goal, Waters said, is to connect trail systems throughout the city.
The new trail section would be 3 to 4 feet wide with boardwalks, signs and a viewpoint. A boardwalk would take people over wetlands.
Motor vehicles and horses would not be allowed because the trail is along a ravine that includes a high-value, fish-bearing stream.
The Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition is a nonprofit citizens group that supports funding for state and local parks, trails, farmland and open space.
Each year, the coalition receives hundreds of applications for projects.
If the Legislature approves the coalition’s full 2011-13 capital budget request, 124 projects in the state will be funded. If the Legislature approves less money, some projects will be cut. Big Gulch is eighth on a list of trails throughout the state, said Erica Doctor, a communications consultant for the coalition.
Other projects in Snohomish County that could get some of the grant money are $65,000 for a restroom at Legion Park in Arlington and $325,000 to build trails for nonmotorized uses at the state’s Reiter Foothills near Gold Bar.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
