A provincial grant has been awarded for the active transportation trail in Grunthal.

Jason Peters is Manager of Recreation and Community Services for the Rural Municipality of Hanover. He explains the Grunthal Community Centre Board along with the RM of Hanover applied for the Community Places grant. The grant will help pay for a walking and cycling path being built in Grunthal.

Peters explains the project is being done in phases. The first phase was started a couple of years ago and involved building a path next to the soccer field and near the Hanover Ag grounds. That path will eventually connect to Wiens Road.

"The Wiens Road portion is not done," says Peters. "There's some future construction that's planned there in terms of the road, so that part of the path's been put off."

Then this summer, the next phase was done which runs along Cottonwood Road, down to Centennial Park. That stretch is about one mile long and Peters says it leaves them with about three-quarters of a mile needed before the path will eventually connect the community to the park.

The Community Places grant is worth $42,265. Peters says this year's portion of the project should cost between $120,000 and $130,000. He notes the grant will certainly help. In addition, the project is being paid for through the CDI fund, which is community development money from Manitoba Hydro.

Peters says most of this year's work is now complete. He notes there is still some landscaping to tackle, as well as some benches and garbage cans to install. Peters adds it is well used.

"A portion of it was completed already in July when the Mud Hero event was at the park, that was the first weekend a lot of traffic on it already," says Peters. "So it's going to be a great addition to the community."