During another public meeting held Tuesday evening, Starkville’s Board of Aldermen approved the request to advertise bids for the Lynn Lane multi-use path project.
‘Lynn Lane’ is a bike and walking trail whose project bids have been pending since it was first announced in 2006. The trail will start at the Sportsplex and end at the intersection of South Montgomery Drive and Howard Road (right across from Locksley Way). 
Reportedly, the city received a $1.2 million grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation. MDOT and the Federal Highway Administration have also provided approval of the project. In 2009, former mayor Dan Camp vetoed the former board’s 4-3 vote to approve of the Lynn Lane multi-use park.
At the time, it began at Sycamore Street and continued through McKee Park and circled the Sportsplex on Lynn Lane.
Ronald Cossman, research professor at MSU and president of Starkville in Motion, said the city will stripe bike lanes on Locksley to provide access to MSU’s campus.
“It will serve as the only pedestrian and cycling friendly East-West corridor in the city,” Cossman said. “It will link the two parks (Sportsplex and McKee) to student housing, the two high schools and the university campus. Those who benefit will be students walking or cycling to campus, high school students walking or cycling to school, citizens either walking to their destination or simply out for exercise and any retail business along the route will benefit from increased traffic at a human scale.”
Scott Maynard,  Alderman of Ward 5, said the Lynn Lane project involves running sidewalk and bike lanes from the Sportsplex down Lynn Lane, across the back of the high school, ending at Montgomery.
“Over the past year, the city has been obtaining the right of way to obtain sidewalk,” Maynard said. “We now will purchase land from city owners.”
Maynard said the project has been pending since before he held position in office.
“So what we have now with the approving of Lynn Lane bids is allowing construction workers to bid on construction entities for the project,” he said.
After confirming the project is and has been official for years, Cossman said this is the latest step in a long series of complicated stages. 
“The original grant application was submitted to MDOT in July 2006,” he said. “The grant was written by members of Starkville in Motion (SIM) on behalf of the city of Starkville in part because the city does not have a grant writer. This is an excellent example of cooperation between the university community and the Starkville community.”