POTTSTOWN PA – A community walking trail that would follow the perimeter of athletic fields and other Pottsgrove School District property behind Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School on Buchert Road will be proposed by district administrators in a application that seeks grant money from the Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation.

The district asked for and received approval Tuesday night (June 26, 2012) from the Board of School Directors to submit an application for funds to pay for a feasibility and cost study, and not the trail itself. Pottsgrove’s request to the foundation for its annual fall round of grant decisions is due during August; grant winners usually are announced in November, Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis said.

He did not provide an estimate for the study’s cost.

If the trail is later deemed worthwhile, Landis added, it probably would be constructed in stages and depend on funds available elsewhere and matching revenue from the district. That potential concerned board President Michael Neiffer, who worried only one or two trail sections might be completed when money ran out. “Then we’d have a trail to nowhere, and we don’t need one of those,” Neiffer said.

Vice President Scott Fulmer and director Nancy Landes both cautioned that any trail proposal should consider the possible future expansion of athletic fields at the school, which are regularly busy with both district and intramural sports events.

Landis said a foundation representative had “informal” discussions about the trail proposal with Lower Pottsgrove Township officials, but that it was not intended to be connected to a portion of the township’s developing trail system.

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