Church donates trail bridges; RFPs going out for meter replacement

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

The Grand Island Town Board, at its regular meeting Monday, accepted the donation of two aluminum bridges for use in the Sandywood/Veterans Trail system, which is off Huth Road.

The donation is being made by Island Presbyterian Church, for a value of $84,328. Supervisor Peter Marston said the church has disbanded and wanted to help the town with this project.

“I’m absolutely taken aback by how awesome this is,” Marston said.

“I can’t help being excited about our Sandywood Trail upgrades,” he said.

“Those bridges should arrive probably next week, and we can start assembling them – and hopefully have them in place before the weather gets bad this year,” Marston said.

“Next year, we’ll look into potentially putting on a surface, and then we’ll have a bikeable way from Huth Road to Veterans Park. So, you can’t build Rome in a day, but we’re working on it.”

The town has created two trail systems: Scenic Woods and Nike Base Park. The Scenic Woods Park and its trails are near the Sandywood Circle residential area on the east side of the Island.

The Island also benefits from the trails located in Beaver Island and Buckhorn Island state parks, and the Western New York Land Conservancy's 145-acre Margery Gallogly Nature Sanctuary.

In other news, the Town Board:

•Authorized the Engineering Department to proceed with the process of sending out a request for proposals from vendors for townwide replacement of aging water meters with a new, high-tech system of remote, wireless meters.

“I’ll only say that I’m really pushing them hard to have this set and have our vendors picked and be ready to go, first quarter 2026,” Marston said.

A flat fee of $17 per quarter was added to each water bill, starting in April, to provide what the Town Board deemed the most equitable revenue stream for the replacement project that is expected to provide better customer service and reduce operating costs.