NLS approves trail extension

NEW LONDON - A new partnership has been forged between the New London-Spicer School District and the state Department of Natural Resources that advances a project to extend the Glacial Lakes State Trail through school property.
The NLS School Board unanimously approved the cooperative agreement at its meeting Monday night.
“We think it’ll be a good partnership,” said Superintendent Paul Carlson.
After getting $1.3 million in state funding in the bonding bill for the trail, the DNR has been working out the details of a route to create a five-mile-long branch of the trail from New London to Sibley State Park.
The proposed course includes a segment through the school’s property.
The plan is for the trail extension to be located just south of the middle school and Prairie Woods Elementary school buildings and athletic fields.
Carlson said teachers who use the school’s nature area near the middle school and the outdoor amphitheater near the elementary school expressed concerns about having people use the trail when students were using those outdoor classrooms.
As a result of those issues, the route of the trail will be adjusted, said Carlson, adding that the school district will have the final say on where the trail goes on the school property.
The DNR, however, will be responsible for all construction and maintenance costs.
The agreement the school board signed lasts until 2049 - with an automatic renewal every five years unless there’s a request by either party to terminate the agreement.
After the trail leaves the school property, the plan is to create a tunnel underneath Kandiyohi County Road 9. The 10-foot-wide paved trail will then run parallel with County Road 40.
At the intersection with U.S. Highway 71, a tunnel will take the trail under that busy highway.
The DNR is in the process of securing property from private landowners along the route.
The project likely will not be completed for another two or three years.