Dick Ramseyer, president the Bluffton Lions Foundation and chair of Bluffton Pathway Board presented a $16,370 check to the village at its July 18 council meeting.

The foundation is actively involved in securing financial resources to construct Pathway system identified in the Comprehensive Bike and Pedestrian Pathway Master Plan. The Bluffton Pathway Board established by Bluffton council is responsible for implementation of the master plan.

The check represents the final payment of the Village of Bluffton’s share in the $244,000 Lions Way-Augsburger Road pedestrian and bike path project. Earlier the Bluffton Lions Foundation paid $8,400, making Bluffton’s share $24,770, which is 20 percent of the project.

The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) has already agreed to pay the remaining 80 percent of the project.

Ramseyer said that bids on the project came in lower than anticipated, which worked out in favor of Bluffton’s total cost in the path.

With the village portion of the project paid, work will begin on construction of a 10-foot wide asphalt biking, running and walking pathway. The pathway will connect Augsburger Road to Riverbend, Maple Crest and Bluffton University’s nature center.

The Pathway Board has an anticipated completion date of late October 2016. The major emphasis on the Augsburger Road Pathway project is safety. With the development of Maple Crest retirement community and Riverbend residential housing subdivision has created a safety issue for pedestrian traffic on the narrow Augsburger Road.

The Lions Way-Augsburger Path is the third project of the Bluffton Pathway Board and Bluffton Lions Foundation. Earlier the board successfully completed The Lions Way path from the County Line Road to the State Route 103 corridor in 2014.

That pathway followed the abandoned A.C.&Y. Railroad from County Line Road  - where it connects to the Triplett bike path - to Springfield Firework parking lot next to State Route 103. This was followed by construction of the Lions Way Trail Head Park in 2015.

The Bluffton Pathway Board in partnership with the Bluffton Lions Foundation next focus is a Bentley Road pathway. It will connect the Lions Way-Augsburger path from Bentley to Grove Street and eventually to Main Street at the Dari Freeze.

The Bluffton Pathway Board goal is to encircle the village with a pedestrian and bike path as defined by the Comprehensive Bike and Pedestrian Pathway Master Plan.

Members of the pathway board include Dick Ramseyer, Laura Voth, Dr. James Harder, Dima Snyder, Greg Denecker, John Rich, Mitch Kingsley, Fred Steiner and village liaisons Jamie Mehaffie and Joe Sehlhorst.

Member of the foundation board include Lions Dick Ramseyer, Dick McGarrity, Barbara Plaugher, Lowell Hostetler, Greg Denecker, Mitch Kingsley, Judy Augsburger, Ed Yeager and Colleen Lazar.