An planned addition to Manning’s trail system will connect residents from the North and South sides of Highway 141 with the IKM-Manning school.

The addition, Safe Routes to School South trail, is set to be completed as early as 2021.

Manning has secured about $131,000, said Dawn Meyer, Manning city administrator and clerk, from a transportation alternative grant and statewide transportation enhancement grant.

The money will match a $100,000 Matching Assets to Community Health from the Wellmark Foundation, allowing this phase of the trail to go further than originally planned.

“It’s two-fold,” Meyer said of the project’s mission. “One is just the general betterment of the community and trail users that use them for recreational purpose. Then the other is the students that will use them for transportation to and from school or after-school events.”

The trail, starting at 10th Street, will go near the football field and Zion Lutheran Church, which Meyer said will be helpful for students who walk to the church after school.

“Then it was going to end at Center Street,” Meyer said. “Now because of the Wellmark Foundation money, we will be able to start on the Center Street portion also and get it all the way to Pleasant (Drive).”

Two more segments will be added in future years to finish the Safe Routes to School South trail. Meyer said there are other segments the city is looking at as well. All these segments are part of a master trail plan the city put together in 2012.

“This is one of the routes that was identified,” she said. “It wasn’t one of the higher-priority routes, but since 2012, we have knocked out a lot of those high-priority ones … so this was kind of the next phase in our master trail plan.”