The Flowery Branch City Council Thursday voted to apply for a grant in coordination with the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission for a connection into the Highlands to Islands trail.
The approval vote is an effort by city officials to pursue a connection from an area in Flowery Branch into a portion of the Highlands to Islands trail that passes through the city. The grant for the project is reportedly offered by the Appalachian Regional Commission and is known as the Area Development Program grant.
The multi-use Highlands to Islands trail reaches from Gainesville to Lake Lanier Islands, with a section of the trail passing through Flowery Branch city limits. The connection into the trail would be an effort to “promote healthy living and pedestrian connectivity,” according to officials.
The grant is accompanied by a 50% match, giving the city the opportunity to push its dollars even further, depending on how many of its own funds they use, City Manager Tonya Parrish said.
“This will be the segment that connects downtown to the lake, down at the Flowery Branch Park with a trail of some sort,” Parrish said. “So it's really in the early stages of it, but we're just requesting their [GMRC] help. And it's free for us because we're a member of the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission.”
The resolution with GMRC comes with three tenets, including the initial engagement with the commission to perform services associated with grant application preparation. Second, the commission is to complete the application preparation at no cost to the city. Finally, the commission will need to “immediately initiate the preparation of the ARC application,” as stated in the agreement.
The ARC is an economic development partnership entity of the federal government with a mission to innovate, partner with and invest in the growth of Appalachia. They accomplish this by providing grants, publishing research and sponsoring learning opportunities that address economic disparities in the region.
Officials with Hall County recently cut the ribbon on a new portion of the Tumbling Creek section of the Highlands to Islands trail near the Gainesville campus of the University of North Georgia.
