Tuesday night, the Spencer Parks Board approved a motion to submit the next grant application for the Iowa Great Lakes Trail Project. As with the application for a state recreational grant, the city and Clay County plan to submit a joint application for a Resource Enhancement and Protection Grant, or REAP Grant. Delray Bredehoeft, parks director, estimated that an application for a federal recreational grant would be submitted sometime this October. Spencer City Manager Bob Fagen had previously indicated that city and county could potentially utilize several grants as, "part of the resource equation" for the project. This remains the case.

This grant would be applied to the portion of the trail which would run east-west along 18th Street and run northward past Fostoria.

Bredehoeft estimated that Spencer would be submitting an application for $125,000 which could be used as a local match for other grant funding. In addition, Bredehoeft indicated that Fostoria may also be submitting an application for $75,000 to aid the project.

"It's basically taking what we did for the state recreational grant and tweaking that a little bit to fit the REAP," Bredehoeft explained, noting the similar processes and language associated with the funding.

"Do they look at those all together, or does each stand on their own?" asked board member Dick Montgomery, referring to the multiple grants the project is pursuing.

"They all stand on their own," Bredehoeft explained.

The REAP Grant application will be submitted this August, and Bredehoeft estimated the results of the application will be known in September.