Oil Company Funds Will Be Used For Bike Trails

Several North Idaho bike trail projects won state grants Tuesday, with the money coming from petroleum companies that overcharged customers.

Gov. Phil Batt designated $1.2 million from the Stripper Well Petroleum Violation Escrow Fund to bicycle and pedestrian path projects around the state.

In North Idaho, the grants are:

Sagle Bike Path, Bonner County, $89,010.

Treaty Rock Trail, Post Falls, $5,452.

Palouse Trail, $36,000, and Sweet Avenue Segment, $17,593, both in Moscow.

Money from the fund, created by lawsuits between federal regulators and petroleum companies, is earmarked for alternative forms of transportation and energy conservation projects.

The biggest grant awarded this year is $264,696 for a path system in Jerome, Idaho, that will connect the town to the high school. Of the 11 grants, Bonner County’s is the third-largest.

It will pay a substantial chunk toward the $185,620 cost to complete a bike path connecting Sagle to Sandpoint.

The Treaty Rock trail, a Post Falls city project that runs under I-90 along a railroad right of way, won funding for grading, paving and widening of an existing gravel and dirt path. The path links the city’s Falls Park to Treaty Rock Park. That project has a total cost of $7,684.

The Moscow projects each won funding for about half their total cost. The Palouse Trail will link up with a similar trail on the Washington side to connect Moscow and Pullman with a 10-foot-wide safe bike trail. The Sweet Avenue trail, a University of Idaho project, will put gravel and paved paths along Paradise Creek at the eastern edge of the university campus.

The fund was created after the federal government sued petroleum companies for failing to comply with price controls that were in effect between 1973 and 1981. The money went into an escrow fund.

, DataTimes