The Friends of Coquille Riverwalk and the city of Coquille have scaled down their ambitions for the long-planned Coquille Riverwalk Trail. Supporters of the riverside walkway hope a more practical approach will be the key to finally moving forward.

In a special meeting Monday afternoon, the City Council is scheduled to vote on submitting a $671,000 grant application to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to build a portion of the walkway.

Last year, the Riverwalk supporters and the city sought a grant to build the project's centerpiece - a covered walkway over the train trestle near Cedar Street and state Highway 42. The city decided to withdraw that grant application because it lacked assets to cover the matching funds requirement.  Grant applications in years past have been denied.

This year, the city is seeking money to build something residents can use and enjoy - a 4,026-foot-long, 8-foot-wide, paved walkway along the Coquille River.

"We can at least get people using the trail, so people can see something happening," said Dennis Graham, the Friends of Coquille Riverwalk president.

He said the grant will build a paved exercise path from Cedar Street to South Mill near the old Georgia-Pacific mill site. The distance is less than a mile and will convert the train trestle into a usable walkway as part of the trail.

"We want to get the trestle to where it is safe to walk on and to get as much done as we can," Graham said.

He said having part of the eventual two-mile pathway finished could start the ball rolling for other grants.

"It's like eating an elephant a little bit at a time," he said.

Coquille Mayor Steve Britton said his main concern about the funding delays is that people have been using the state highway through town as an exercise path.

"They are walking on the highway with 55 mph traffic," Britton said. "This would be an opportunity for them to get off the highway and have a beautiful view of the Coquille River."

 Britton said the idea has been kicked around for 20-odd years without much progress. In the past decade, two committees have started fundraising and drawing up plans. The first committee wanted to build a trail from Coquille out to nearby Johnson Mill Pond, but that idea proved too ambitious. In 2003, the Riverwalk committee was reformed with smaller plans for a trail running alongside the Coquille River through town, Graham said. The committee has changed names, becoming the nonprofit Friends of Coquille Riverwalk.

After almost nine years trying to move Riverwalk from blueprint to ground work, Graham says it's time to start building.

"We've been working on it too long without getting something started." he said.

The Coquille City Council will meet at noon, Monday at City Hall, 851 N. Central Ave., to vote on a submitting the grant application.