The Sheldon City Council could authorize up to $300,000 to kick-start a trail at the proposed Crossroads Park on the community’s east side

The $300,000 would come from the Sheldon Trail Committee’s account. While those dollars are public they are not tax dollars; the trails committee gets its funds from donations and fundraisers.

The council will vote on the matter when it meets at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, at the Sheldon Community Services Center.

The trails committee previously approved allocating $300,000 of its money for the Crossroads Park project and the early estimate for the trail is $550,000.

Of the $300,000, nearly $30,000 will go to Beck Engineering of Spirit Lake to provide engineering service for a 1-mile trail that would go around the pond at the center of the undeveloped 40-acre site adjacent to Crossroads Pavilion event center.

To help offset the cost, the trails committee also will pursue grants to finance the trail. The city is considering hiring Simmering-Cory of Storm Lake for grant-writing services at a cost of $70 an hour but not to exceed $1,000 per grant application.

Pending grant funding, Beck Engineering estimates the trail could go out for bid in the first quarter of 2021 and be constructed sometime that year.