Isle of Wight County, on Aug. 19, appropriated $69,000 in federal funding for a sidewalk project in Smithfield.

The sidewalk, which will vary in width, is proposed to span from Main Street’s 400 block to Westside Elementary along the school’s side of the road, and from Great Spring Road’s intersection with Main Street to its intersection with Quail Street.

The county will be managing the project on behalf of the town, according to Assistant County Administrator Don Robertson.

According to 60% design documents submitted by the engineering firm Kimley-Horn, the sidewalk will be patterned to resemble a brick walkway from its connection to existing historic district sidewalks to its intersection with the Route 10 bypass.

“It will be a stamped product until final plans are done for the future of the site, as to not have it torn up if development occurs,” said Smithfield Town Manager Michael Stallings.

This particular section of sidewalk will run past the site of the former Little’s Supermarket, which former Smithfield Foods Chairman Joseph W. Luter III acquired and razed last year for the purpose of building a development of unspecified size, which is proposed to include housing, office space and a hotel.

The $69,000 comes from federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funds administered by the Virginia Department of Transportation. The project requires a $17,000 local match by the county and the town of Smithfield has agreed to contribute an additional $100,000.

The town’s Department of Planning and Community Development has not received any proposed site plan for the development, nor has the Luter family had any discussions with the town concerning funding the sidewalk project beyond the $100,000 the town has contributed, Stallings said.

According to a public notice Isle of Wight County ran in the Aug. 18 and Aug. 25 editions of The Smithfield Times, the right-of-way acquisition phase of the project is set to begin this fall. The project’s engineering and environmental documents are publicly available at www.iwus.net/smithfieldsidewalk. The county is not presently planning to hold a public hearing on the matter, but Isle of Wight residents have until Aug. 30 to request one.