Funds Raised To Begin Trail

Organizers of a trail linking Moscow and Pullman have enough money to get the project rolling.

“When we added up the numbers, we got very excited,” said Mary Gresch with the Washington State University Foundation.

The groups collecting funds for the Bill Chipman Palouse Trail have $206,251 in the bank, with more than $282,000 in pledges. To guarantee the federal grant needed for the trail, $195,000 was required.

The Washington Department of Transportation has been holding onto a $900,000 federal grant the trail was awarded in 1993 until local matching funding was arranged.

The trail is named after the late Bill Chipman, a University of Idaho graduate and a community-minded businessman in Pullman.

Trail supporters had until May to raise the money or the federal matching funds could have been lost. They still are waiting for the title to the property to be transferred over to the county.