Statesboro City Council recently accepted both a $1.4 million state grant through the Georgia Department of Transportation for engineering of the Creek on the Blue Mile Trail project and an unrelated, roughly $800,000 agreement for continued operation of the city’s bus system. The funding for the “preliminary engineering phase” of the creek-side, multi-use trail is a Transportation Alternatives, Congestion, Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement grant through the GDOT. A 20% funding match, or $350,000, is required from the city, with the local source being T-SPLOST, the transportation projects sales tax. Back in 2023, Statesboro’s city government was awarded a $2.12 million Transportation Alternatives grant for the construction phase of the creek trail. So some construction funding, not enough for the entire cost, was available before the preliminary engineering money, and the 2026 grant pushes the total state funding for the trail portion of the project to over $3.5 million. The grant application describes the trail as “a creek-side pedestrian promenade and linear park with … channel improvements” along Little Lotts Creek from the South Main Corridor. Cross-section concept illustrations have been available for several years. As also noted in the application, the estimated total project cost for the trail and linear park is a little over $25 million. City Council agreed to approve the latest, $1.4 million, engineering phase-only grant application and simultaneously accept…
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