By Heart of Illinois ABC

NORMAL – The Normal Town Council is willing to spend up to $241,000 in money the town receives from the state gasoline tax to cover some of the cost of a proposed Constitution Trail extension in west Normal.

The money covers 20 percent of the cost to extend the hiking and biking trail along Gregory Street, from Parkside Road to Adelaide Street, along with road repairs on Gregory.

The town will apply for an Illinois Transportation Enhancement Grant (ITEP) to cover the rest of the $1.2 million project.

Stan Nord was the only council member voting no, putting him at odds with the rest of the council, particularly Karyn Smith. Nord and Smith ran as a team in the 2019 municipal elections and both won council seats.

Nord said residents were promised motor fuel tax dollars would be spent only for road improvements.

“The motor fuel tax increase was advertised to taxpayers to go to fix the roads. We are using it on an amenity,” said Nord.

The council voted in September to double the local gas tax to eight cents per gallon, and Mayor Chris Koos said the town never pledged to use gas tax dollars only for roads.

Council member Smith took offense to Nord’s claims that the council misled the public.

“I’ve always been a person of integrity. To intimate that there’s been any effort to provide some kind of subterfuge when the public record clearly states what occurred is very troubling to me,” said Smith.

The project has long been on the Friends of Constitution Trail’s wish list, said the organization’s president Patrick Dullard.

He said the trail extension will provide a safe biking route to Normal West High School and Parkside Jr. High, and someday, Dullard said Illinois State University might re-locate its two lab schools, Metcalf Elementary and University High School, in that area.

Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at [email protected].