School board members and city officials discussed ways of ending the impasse surrounding the possible use of some Mesa School land as the trailhead for a recreational walking and biking trail, but no decision was reached Tuesday night.

Chris Burkett, director of Parks and Recreation, spoke to the school board to explore the possibility of the board reaching a decision about the Mesa School land, which is the intended trailhead for the approximately 1 1/2 mile non-motorized trail.

The city of Cortez applied for and received a grant to build a walking and biking trail around the city late last year. Since December of 1999, city officials have been planning a possible route for the yet unnamed recreation trail.

Attorneys from both the city and school district have been formulating some guidelines for the city to comply with before the school board makes a decision. Steve Hinton, Re-1 school board president, deferred any decision about the trail to the next board meeting. Hinton expressed concern that the city had not yet surveyed the land, one of the requests of the board.

Burkett explained that the city hopes that the board will approve the construction of the trail if the city agrees to meet all of the requirements of the agreement.