The Altoona Water Authority has applied for a $7.3 million grant from the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) program for the development of a trail network near Lake Altoona and the Mill Run Reservoir.

Land Manager Katie Semelsberger is confident about the authority’s chances of receiving the grant — recipients for which will be announced in January, Semelsberger said at a meeting Thursday.

Five experts from a pair of consulting firms spent a week recently setting flags for the network — for which the firms will be creating maps and documentation, according to Semelsberger, who has been involved with local trail advocates, including those looking to create a county trail authority.

Since 2016, Congress has been appropriating money annually to the AMLER program, “to explore and implement strategies to return legacy coal mining sites to productive uses through economic and community development,” according to the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement website.

If the local network comes to fruition, it would provide opportunities for mountain biking, gravel biking, hiking, snowmobiling and horseback riding, Semelsberger said.

Since 2016, Pennsylvania has received $239 million from the AMLER program, including $28.6 million for this year, according to the website.

Kentucky and West Virginia have received similar allocations over the years, while Alabama, Ohio, Virginia and three Native American tribes have received smaller amounts.

Seven million dollars is a “drop in the bucket,” compared to the funding made available by the program, Semelsberger said.

“This is taking off,” said Chairman Bill Neugebauer of the trail effort.

“It’s nice to watch it grow legs,” Semelsberger said.

C2 Recreation and Applied Trails Research are the network designers, Semelsberger said.

The proposed AMLER trails are not going to coincide with existing informal trails near Lake Altoona and in Mill Run, officials said.

The AMLER project “blossomed” from a reforestation project the authority worked on two years ago with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Bryn Mawr College, involving the planting of seedlings on the former Cooney Coal Co. property above the Horseshoe Curve, according to authority General Manager Mark Perry.

The proposed AMLER network is separate from a network of trails that the West Central Pennsylvania Off-Highway Motorcycle Association has proposed for authority-owned land between Sugar Run Road and the Norfolk Southern mainline near the former site of Middle Grade Tower, officials said.

It’s also separate from a recently developed network of mountain bike trails on authority watershed property off Glen White Run Road.

A large group of stakeholders are working on trail development in the county, Semelsberger said.

Mirror Staff Writer William

Kibler is at 814-949-7038.