GOFFSTOWN - At Monday's Board of Selectmen meeting, selectmen accepted a state grant, allowing the town to begin work on transforming an old railroad bed into a recreational corridor, connecting Pinardville to Goffstown Village.

The $29,800 grant was part of a trail program run by the Department of Resources and Economic Development. It had to be matched by $14,900 in volunteer labor, town labor and town materials, according to David Pierce, the vice president of Friends of the Goffstown Rail Trail, a community organization.

The money will be bundled with a similar grant the town received in 2007, funding drainage and grading work around one-third of a mile of the trail centered around the Goffstown Parks and Recreation Department facility on Mast Road and 3,000 feet of the trail between Moose Club Park Road and the town border with Manchester.

The town also plans to have bollards installed to keep cars out and an exit created from the end of the trail to Sarette Field in Pinardville, Pierce said.

“It is the first actual trail reconstruction undertaken by the town since they purchased the land,” he said.

Pierce said the town will seek out contractors for the rail trail the end of this month. The work should be completed in late August or early September.

Friends of the Goffstown Rail Trail also will continue its volunteer cleanup days, which are the third Saturday of every month, from 9 a.m. to noon.