CROWN POINT | The Board of Works voted unanimously Friday to spend $450,000 to acquire right of way for a bike path between 93rd Avenue and Summit Street.

"We're finally seeing that progress forward," Mayor Dan Klein said.

Parks Director Julie Johnson said the city will be reimbursed for $360,000 of the cost through a federal grant for the project, but the city must pay the money up front.

The Pennsy Greenway Northwest Trail Corridor bike path is set to follow an abandoned railroad right of way through Crown Point south from the Erie Lackawanna Trailhead at 93rd Avenue and Chase Street and curve behind the Liberty Park subdivision to meet Summit Street west of Main Street.

Johnson said the railroad right of way, which was abandoned many years ago, has become part of the adjacent landowners' property and will have to be acquired by the city.

The path is slated to eventually extend from Lansing to Crown Point.

The Board of Works also unanimously approved a $9,983 agreement with Chicagoland Bicycle Federation for the Crown Point bikeway plan.

"The major trails that hook up to the city are coming in fast," Johnson said. "To keep up with that we need to plan how the bike path will go through the city."

The first public input meeting for the bike path is set for 6 p.m. May 15 in St. Anthony's Marion Education Center.