Two state grants will allow the completion of the Butler Freeport Community Trail into Butler and an extension of the Butler Rotary Park trail.

The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources announced Thursday that Buffalo Township will receive $91,400 for further development of the community trail in Buffalo Township and in Butler, while the Redevelopment Authority of Butler will receive $154,000 for development and rehabilitation of the Rotary Park Trail.

The 21-mile Butler Freeport Community Trail is finished except for a four-mile stretch near Butler, including a gap at Coal Run.

The final miles are being completed by the Buffalo Township road department and volunteers from the Butler-Freeport Community Trail Council, funded by a 2008 state grant of $392,000.

The township grant announced Thursday will pay for a bridge over Coal Run and the construction of about one-tenth of a mile of trail between Coal Run and Father Marinaro Park in Butler.

"It's good news for bicyclists, trail users and pedestrians," said Chris Ziegler, president of the trail council.

"The bridge has been in my yard for a couple of years now, so it will be nice to see the trail getting done."

Although the gap over Coal Run is only about 26 feet, the completed bridge will span 115 feet.

Township Supervisor John Haven said the bridge's main girder is 24 feet and will use abutments from the former bridge.

"We're going from one elevation to another, a drop of approximately 15 feet, so we had to stretch it out so it is ADA accessible, with a grade of less than 2 precent," Haven said.

The bridge's steel frame is in six pieces in Ziegler's yard. A grant from the Rails to Trails Conservancy will fund the bridge deck and railing once the superstructure is erected.

"I have a very understanding husband," she joked about keeping the bridge at her house.

"(Construction) will be, at the very earliest, next summer."

Ziegler said a building permit must be filed, then a contract signed for an engineering study before the bridge can be built, a process that could take more than four months.

Haven said Wallace and Pancher of Hermitage, the same engineers who did permit work for the trail, were contracted to secure the bridge permits.

"It took us about a year and a half to get the permits for the last part of the trail," Haven said.

He attributed most of the delays to arsenic contamination near that part of the trail.

However, in the next four weeks, progress will be made on the unfinished portion of the trail leading up to Coal Run.

Ziegler said the trail council is waiting on a bid for crushed limestone, which it hopes to add to ditches and to the trail itself by the end of November.

Haven said, "We're looking forward to finishing the trail into Butler. This is a dream for a lot of people — not just the trail users, but the volunteers."

He said the council is trying to organize a marathon from Butler to Freeport when the trail is done.

He said the township applied to the Butler County Housing and Redevelopment Authority for a grant to add handicapped and senior parking to the Kaufman Drive trail head.

Both grants to Buffalo Township and to the city include money for signs, landscaping and ADA compliant ramps.

According to Perry O'Malley, executive director of the redevelopment authority, bidding and construction for improvements to the Butler Rotary Park trail also will begin in the spring.

The trail will start behind Pullman Park, continuing along Sullivan Run through Rotary Park to South Chestnut Street, near the Farmer's Market.

Lighting is included in the city grant because parts of it will be an "urban trail," O'Malley said.

The $154,000 state grant will be combined with a $50,000 Community Development Block Grant, allocating more than $200,000 toward the project, he said.

"This is another piece of our West End revitalization," O'Malley said.

With both trails completed, walkers and bicyclists will be able to take the Butler-Freeport Community Trail from Butler to Freeport and then get on the Heritage Trail to head to Washington D.C.

The state funds for both trail projects come from more than $23 million in grants from the DCNR.

Demand for the grant money was high, and the state turned down 177 applications, according to a statement issued by the state.