KJAM reports that the Madison City Commission is hoping to finally connect its recreation trail to beautiful Lake Herman… with a big dollop of federal dollars:
Madison City Commission approved a grant application for a rec trail expansion on Monday. The application is for funding from the South Dakota Department of Transportation Alternatives Grant. If awarded, the funds would be used to expand the city’s recreation trail from the bypass, to Lake Herman State Park.
A 10 foot wide trail to Lake Herman would cost approximately 1.7 million dollars. If the city receives the grant funding, Madison would be responsible for $306,000 of the cost [“Madison Applying for State Funds to Expand Rec. Trail,” KJAM Radio, 2026.07.07].
The Transportation Alternatives program uses federal funds designated by Congress via the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed under President Biden expanded funding for this program by nearly 70%. South Dakota gets about $9 million a year from TA and can spend around $8 million a year on projects. The state is taking applications for the latest round of funding through October 1.
Madison considered this very logical extension of the trail to make a safer path for bikers and hikers than the narrow shoulders of 234th Street 17 years ago, but that consideration never laid concrete. The city currently offers a trail from Flynn Field on the south edge of town east to Lake Madison. The city’s 2024 Recreation Trail Master Plan said that 56% of the 163 respondents to a survey on local trails said they wanted the trail to connect to Lake Herman, making the county’s great state park and watershed filter the preferred destination for any new recreational path:
The Lake Herman connector could be part of a fabulous network proposed in the master plan that would lay trails along both of the major creek beds in Madison and add a loop around the northeast quadrant of town. The Memorial and Silver creek paths would be connected north-south by shared-use paths along Highland and Egan Avenues:
This map misses an opportunity to make a complete creekside adventure and lay trails west along Silver Creek to Territorial Road and Prairie Village and east from the creek convergence down to Lake Madison. Imagine a complete lake-to-lake trail, all off the road and meandering along the creek! It would probably cost more—longer with all the curves, trickier land acquisition—but the cost would be worth it! Pedestrians and pedalists alike could Discover a lot more of the Unexpected™ along the creeks than up on the road.
But hey, even a plain straight trail from the southwest corner of Madison to the entrance to Lake Herman State Park will make life better in Lake County. Let’s get those federal dollars before they disappear and turn them into concrete for lasting outdoor fun!