Coweta County

and south Fulton County could soon be linked by a new bike path.

The Coweta

County Commission voted Tuesday to pursue a $367,000 grant that would

pay for property acquisition for a four to six mile path in northern Coweta

County that would connect to a proposed park at the Palmetto Reservoir

and move north to Cochran Mill Park.

Palmetto has

applied for a grant to construct a trail from the reservoir park to MARTA.

The proposed path would connect the reservoir park to Dunaway Gardens

in northern Coweta County.

The grant is

administered through the Department of Natural Resources and is a leveraged

grant, which means the more local money is contributed, the less the county

would receive from the grant.

The County

Commission decided not to apply any local money towards the grant and

apply for the entire $367,00 to come from the state.

Commissioner

Vernon "Mutt" Hunter said it would be wise for the county not

to commit any taxpayers' money to the project until they had a better

idea of Gov.-Elect Sonny Perdue's economic program.

"I don't

want to be paying for bike paths when we might have some other needs to

fill," he said.

If the county

is successful in obtaining the grant, the county would still be responsible

for paying for construction of the bike paths, which would be nearly $285,000.