NEWPORT — AARP recently announced that the city of Newport is one of the awardees for its 2019 AARP Community Challenge grant program.
The city will receive $24,172.35 for the Prouty Beach connector project, which is expected to contribute to Newport’s development of an outdoor recreational economy.
By connecting two established segments of recreational trails, the trail will form a 7-mile waterfront recreational corridor that will connect downtown Newport to the Canadian border, where it will link to a series of high-use recreational trails.
This recreational corridor should increase pedestrian and biking traffic into downtown, helping to promote business growth.
“We are very pleased to direct resources to these projects as a way to support and encourage local community development initiatives aimed at creating more livable, engaging and healthy communities,” said Kelly Stoddard-Poor, community outreach director at AARP Vermont.
The Community Challenge grant program is part of AARP’s nationwide Livable Communities initiative which helps communities become great places to live for residents of all ages.
“There were a number of really exciting proposals to consider this year and it was a difficult selection process,” Stoddard-Poor said. “We look forward to watching these projects come to fruition.”
