The Middlesex Township Board of Supervisors accepted a bid of $168,170 from Holbein Inc. for the completion of a trail around the Middlesex Township Community Park.

The township received six requests for bid packets from different companies, but in the end only one, Holbein Inc., submitted a bid.

According to township manager Adam Hartwig, the trail will connect the upper sidewalk along the ridgeline back into the existing trail, run along the current woods line, dip into a corner of the woods, connect back into the existing trail along the back side of the property, and then run down the right side of the field and tie back in parallel to parking.

Hartwig expects the project to both begin and be completed this fall, and said it “should only take a few weeks.”

“What we did before we bid it out was, we took the various park plans that we had with the sportsplex fields and the park comprehensive plan that we had done, and the original trail location, and we overlaid them to see where our overlap points were,” he said. “We wanted to make sure every map we had wasn't going to conflict with the work that we were going to be doing.”

The trail will be about 6 feet wide. Hartwig said the distance was determined because it was possible for two wheelchairs to pass one another as well as to make room for parents with strollers or for cyclists.

“It helps give some extra elbow room,” he said.

The proposed Parks and Recreation committee announced at the Aug. 4 board meeting already has had a dozen community members respond with interest in participating, Hartwig said. Once members are selected and the committee is formed officially in September, they will have input into the trail construction project.

Middlesex's new director of public works, Heath Singer, began work with the township this Aug. 16. He previously worked in Winfield Township for three years and has worked alongside Hartwig before.He will oversee day-to-day road department operations as well as the rollout of road projects such as paving and chip seal.