EBENSBURG — The Central Cambria School District was awarded a more than $716,000 grant to construct two miles of pedestrian and bike pathways from its campus in Cambria Township to the nearby West Highland Avenue in Ebensburg Borough.

The project is funded as part of the 2025 Transportation Alternatives Set-Aside of the Federal Highway Administration’s surface block grant program, and the amount received should be enough for the district to get a nice, finished trail, according to Superintendent Jason Moore.

According to Moore, district officials are uncertain of the finalized path the trail will follow. However, the main priority is to provide a safe space for students and community members to walk between Admiral Peary Area Vocational-Technical School, the North Central Recreation Center and the Central Cambria campus, he said.

Moore said there are a lot of people who visit the campus to exercise and walk. In order to do that, borough residents walk on Schoolhouse Road from Highland Avenue to the rear of the campus.

That’s problematic, especially in the wintertime when travel conditions are dangerous, because there are no sidewalks along Schoolhouse Road, Moore said.

“We always worry about somebody getting hit by a car, so we looked into this,” Moore said, adding the trail has been the district’s vision for a couple of years now.

Central Cambria initially reached out to state Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Cambria, because he previously served as chairman of the senate transportation committee and has connections with PennDOT officials, Moore said.

Langerholc’s staff pointed the district in the direction of right people at PennDOT and Cambria County Commissioner Tom Chernisky, who Moore described as an advocate for the county’s trails and outdoor recreation.

That led to a meeting between Chernisky, Moore and Tricia Murin, Central Cambria’s assistant superintendent, who wrote the grant application for the district, Chernisky said, adding he remembers that meeting.

“They were wanting to talk about connecting Central Cambria to Ebensburg and build a trail around their campus that people could use for their physical health and their mental health,” Chernisky said.

Receiving the grant is “exciting news” for the district, the county and the region, Chernisky said, noting Ebensburg is a trailhead for multiple destinations, including the Ghost Town Trail.

“Ebensburg is a walkable community with sidewalks, so it connects a lot of different places,” Chernisky said of the district’s future pathways.

Since the county owns the North Central Recreation Center and the Admiral Peary Area joint operating committee is responsible for approving anything that would go on their grounds, there was a lot of collaboration in just applying for the grant, Moore said, noting Ebensburg Borough officials were “a big help” for writing letters of support for the project.

The district’s business office and maintenance director will oversee much of the project, but district officials haven’t had a formal kickoff meeting with all stakeholders involved to iron out key details yet, such as the finalized path or when the project will go out to bid, Moore said.

“As soon as possible would be the safest answer, but sometimes things like this take time and a lot of contractors are obviously booked for the summer,” Moore said of when the trail is projected to be built.

“We’ll try to get it accomplished as quickly as possible, but we understand that a lot of folks are busy with other priorities,” he said.

In addition to increasing the number of recreational opportunities for residents, Moore said the trail is equally as important for students, who will be able to walk to school more safely from Admiral Peary, which is situated about a quarter of a mile down the road from Central Cambria High School.

Moore said he’s hopeful there will be a second phase to the project to one day connect the trail to Bishop Carroll High School, which is slightly over half a mile down Route 422 from the vo-tech.

“We would have to do some work through the woods to connect Admiral Peary with Bishop Carroll,” Moore said. “We couldn’t get it into this grant, but our goal is to tie everything together.”

According to a press release, the Central Cambria project will include marked crosswalks, signage and traffic calming features to improve safety and accessibility.

Hollidaysburg Borough was also awarded a nearly $1.5 million grant in the same round of PennDOT District 9 investments.

The borough was awarded $1,490,230 to enhance pedestrian infrastructure and add traffic calming measures along several blocks of Allegheny Street and adjacent blocks, the release states.

The project consists of new sidewalks, curb, Americans with Disabilities Act accessible ramps as well as traffic calming measures, such as bulb outs and crosswalks, according to the release.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.