project would have to get approval from the Pitkin County commissioners. If it's signed off on, engineering and planning will consume most of next year and an application will be made to Great Outdoors Colorado for a grant to pay for a portion of the costs. So far, the work that has gone into vetting the various options and selecting "option 4" has cost about $50,000, which has been paid to the engineering firm Lafayette, Colo.-based Loris and Associates, Inc. The issue of whether to make the Rio Grande Trail a continuously paved corridor has been debated for years. Some, particularly road cyclists, argue that it ought to be. Others, like runners and equestrians, want to keep it as a soft surface. Improvement options for the trail range in cost from nearly $704,000 to as much as $22 million. Log onto to www.pitkincountyrgt.org for more details of the various alternatives and the current proposal.