Having experienced prior failure in an effort to get big money for a sprawling bicycle-trail project on its watershed grounds, the Altoona Water Authority is now looking for a modest sum to pay for a trail project of limited scope, in hopes that a small success will create impetus for further progress.

Previously, working with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC), the authority applied without success for a $7.3 million Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) grant to create 45 miles of trails on formerly strip-mined ground above the Horseshoe Curve and onto Chestnut Flats above Mill Run, according to authority general manager Mark Perry.

On Thursday, the authority approved an application for up to $250,000 from the state’s Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program to create a bike trail running from an existing trailhead three-quarters of the way up Glen White Road from the Curve to a spot at Kittanning Point that overlooks the famous railroad landmark — an effort that perhaps could “get something started, develop momentum” for the larger project, Perry said.

The trailhead along Glen White Road currently serves an 8-mile network of bike trails created over the last few years by a volunteer group of local mountain biking enthusiasts, including a couple of city employees, according to Perry.

The Greenways, Trails and Recreation Program of the Department of Community and Economic Development requires a 15% match, which would be paid by PEC, Perry said.

The authority is the formal applicant, as landowner.

PEC has invested significant money in the effort to develop a trail network in the area already, according to Perry.

The funding application involves documentation to be executed with the Commonwealth Financing Authority.

The new application is “absolutely” aligned with the ambitions of the new Blair County Trail, Park and Recreation Authority, according to Perry.

In 2024, before the authority applied for the AMLER money, experts from a pair of consulting firms had set flags for the proposed large trail network, officials said then.

That previous application for AMLER money “blossomed” from a reforestation project the authority had worked on two years prior with PEC and Bryn Mawr College, involving the planting of seedlings on the former Cooney Coal Co. property above the Horseshoe Curve, Perry said then.

As proposed in 2024, the network would also have provided opportunities for hiking, snowmobiling and horseback riding, as well as mountain biking, authority Land Manager Katie Semelsberger said then.

The proposed bike trail network above the Curve and Mill Run 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 old Middle Grade Switch Tower.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.