Work is beginning on the new trail at the Community Walking Park in Polk Township, which should be finished by the end of November, park committee Chairman Robert Butler said at the Monday night meeting.

Polk Township supervisors awarded the bid to Bruce George Construction for $66,494 at a special meeting on Sept. 11.

“Currently it’s an empty field there,” Chairman Brian Ahner explained after the meeting Monday. “So it’s a clean slate, and then we wanna put a walking trail around it.”

The trail will be about a half-mile long and made out of crushed stone.

The Park and Recreation Committee is planning to plant trees along the trail, Ahner said. It is also discussing eventually putting in amenities such as a pavilion, sand boxes and swings.

“There’s big plans for it,” Ahner said. “It’s hard just starting now to say where we’re gonna be five years from now.”

The township received a grant for $20,000 toward this park and has also budgeted money for it, Ahner said.

The park committee will organize a tree planting day Oct. 5 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the park to temporarily put the trees in the ground so that they can survive the winter before they are permanently planted. Everyone is welcome to volunteer.

In other business

The supervisors discussed the need for new culverts on Bear Road and Dotters Corner Road. Ahner asked that the township obtain estimates of how much these will cost so that they can be considered in next year’s budget.

The Bear Road culvert is in serious disrepair and will probably be addressed first, Ahner said.

Engineer Russell Kresge suggested that the Dotters Corner Road work could take $300,000 or more and the Bear Road work less, but he said he would do research to provide a more accurate estimate.

The supervisors also agreed to a contract with the Industrial Development Authority for an LSA grant to repair the Dorshimer Bridge.

The bridge is over 80 years old and its footers are deteriorating, Ahner said. The work will include underpinning the bridge and putting in new guide rails.

The project should go to bid in the spring, Kresge said.