The weather is cooling down, but the City's trail system is heating up. With four projects in the works, the City's Park & Recreation Department, Urban Forestry, and Community Development/Engineering are hard at work getting four projects slated for both construction and rehabilitation. The projects are:

• Mill Creek Trail Rehabilitation at Garden Park, in the photo above, with the bid currently open and an anticipated start of construction of Nov. 5;
• Mill Creek Trail Construction from Garden Park to McAuliff, with the bid currently open and start of construction on Nov. 5;
• Packwood Creek Trail along Walnut Avenue, between Santa Fe railroad to Cedar Street, will open for bid on Oct. 26 and construction to start on Nov. 26, and;
• St. John's River Trail between Road 148 to Cutler Park is anticipated to start construction on Jan. 21, 2013.

For more information on the City's trail system, call the City's Parks & Recreation Department at 713-4364 or visit www.liveandplayvisalia.com.

For more Inside City Hall, click here.

Revenue ballot options explored

Council members voted to continue to explore a ballot measure to enhance revenues. Council directed staff to develop a comprehensive list of service cuts, deferred maintenance and future needs, state and federal mandates, and other programs/projects that are unable to be implemented due to the financial constraints of balancing the City's two-year budget. Council members agreed to take the issue up at their annual workshop. For the complete staff report, click here.    

$83,400 awarded in non-profit grants

All 23 applications submitted for the 2012/13 Non-profit grants came away with funding from the Oct. 15 City Council meeting. The City's Citizen Advisory Committee recommended funding at least $1,000 to all of the applicants, with some awards as high as $6,500. Although the total amount is reduced from by half from last year's $151,495 awarded, City Council has continued to priortize funding for programs that keep youth out of gangs while serving as many agencies as possible, even in tough economic times. Grant guidelines require that at least 50% of the funding be allocated to programs designated as gang prevention/intervention with a maximum grant amount of $6,500 and a minimum award of $1,000. For a description of programs funded, click here.