… The Fresno City Council on Thursday authorized an application for $5.1 million in state climate-bond money toward a long-planned extension of the Lewis S. Eaton Trail into the River West area along the San Joaquin River. The grant — a fraction of the project’s roughly $23 million construction estimate — now goes to the San Joaquin River Conservancy’s board, which votes Wednesday on whether to award it. … Beyond the Highway 41 underpass lies a 358-acre stretch of public land along the San Joaquin River — a riverine patchwork of grassland, ponds, riparian woodland, legacy gravel-mining pits and fenced stormwater basins. … River West would extend the existing Eaton Trail roughly 2.4 miles to Spano Park — giving Fresno residents much-needed access to all that beauty.