SARANAC LAKE – The village wants to bring in outside help to engineer, design and permit an extension to the Saranac River Walk.

The village Board of Trustees voted Tuesday to direct village Manager John Sweeney to issue a request for qualifications for a potential consultant.

The River Walk starts in the parking lot behind the Saranac Lake police station at 3 Main St., goes under the LaPan Highway Bridge and winds along the edge of the Saranac River, at the edge of the Dorsey Street municipal lot.

When it reaches two riverfront properties – a garage owned by the late Barry Magee, and the former Dew Drop Inn, which Calli Shelton and Randy Coles of Texas bought in May for $225,000 from prior owner Ed Dukett – it veers away from the river and down an alley.

The village wants to continue the River Walk along the river through those two properties. Shelton supports the concept, and her plans for the property show the River Walk going through an open-air, covered porch, then up a set of stairs to Broadway, which it would cross to re-join its current route.

“This is to do the design for that and whatever permitting is required,” Trustee Paul Van Cott said Tuesday.

Trustee Allie Pelletieri asked if the village has an easement or right of way along the river through the two properties.

“That’s part of what the consultant would do is take care of securing those easements,” Van Cott said.

The consultant would be paid using funds from a $150,000 grant the village was awarded last year. The money was intended for the design of a proposed shoreline trail along Lake Flower, but village officials agreed to redirect it to the River Walk extension earlier this year.