By Sarah Stultz

sarah.stultz@albertleatribune.com

HAYWARD — Minnesota Department of Natural Resources officials confirmed Wednesday the Blazing Star Trail has been allocated the final funding needed to extend the trail from the Myre-Big Island State Park to Hayward.

The project was one of only a half dozen trail projects to receive a state funding allocation for 2012, according to Kent Skaar with acquisition and development for the Parks and Trails Division of the Minnesota DNR.

Skaar said the project has been allocated $500,000, which should be close to the amount needed to complete it.

The update came during a meeting at the Hayward City Hall with at least 30 people present to hear what’s next for the trail.

Organizers hope to move forward with engineering work this winter and hope to gather bids for the project in late winter or early spring. Most of the major construction will take place in 2012.

“We’re certainly in a much better position now to complete the trail than we were three months ago,” Skaar said.

While a few phases of the trail project have been set back because of the state government shutdown this summer, various testing is still scheduled to be completed yet this fall, including testing of the lakebed and an archeological test.

Joel Wagar, area supervisor with the Parks and Trails Division, said all of the land agreements needed for the project are in place or are waiting to be recorded as state trail properties.

The project has been in the works for several years after the Legislature first authorized the existence of the Blazing Star Trail in 1996. Initial funding came in 1998, and it took five years until the land deals were done so the trail could be built from Albert Lea into Myre-Big Island State Park. Hayward built restrooms in 2003, in anticipation of the trail bringing tourists to town.

In 2005, the state Legislature authorized $1.47 million in the bonding bill, with the aim of getting the trail to Hayward.

That funding had a five-year spending deadline, but during the 2010 legislative session, the Legislature extended the deadline to June 2014.

Skaar said the bridge planned to go over Albert Lea Lake as part of the project has become a major point of conversation.

“It’s going to be unique in our system,” he said. “There’s nothing else quite like it.”

He said he envisions the park being filled with more bicyclists because of the new bridge, which will be about 1,900 feet long. It might be the longest bridge in the state’s bike trail system.

“It’s going to be a cool feature,” he noted. “Folks will ride out to it simply to be on the bridge.”

While it will be relatively low to the water, it will have to provide some passage at the channel in the middle.

There will also be areas where people can go for fishing or viewing.

The DNR officials asked the people in attendance and others interested in the project to begin to consider where the trail should go after it is extended to Hayward.

Skaar said the projects that have been planned and are ready to begin work are more likely to receive state funding.