Bluejacket and Pilla parks will soon see big improvements after the city received a $42,000 grant last week.
Parks and Rec Director Sally Pennington said new bathrooms and water fountains will be the main additions to Bluejacket Park.
“It’s one of our most busy parks,” Pennington said. “It’s going to help make that park more of a destination and be ADA compliant.”
Pennington said these additions to the park will make a huge difference.
“The community is going to feel the impact immediately. It’s a huge need,” she said.
Pennington said the funding is also being used to add more inclusive and accessible play pieces at Pilla Park.
Assistant City Manager Zack Daniel said the city does not have a timeline for when the grant projects will be finished.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas funded the grant as part of LiveWell Douglas County’s Pathways to a Healthy Kansas Initiative, which aims to improve and advance the health of a community.
LiveWell Douglas County Executive Director Ginny Barnard said a large part of the grant application process was distributing a community survey asking residents what they liked and disliked about the parks.
“That’s what helped influence what the funds were going to be used for,” Barnard said.
Daniel said the Bluejacket Park improvements were part of this year’s budget so they were not expecting to receive any grant funding.
“It frees up that money for other other purposes, whether it’s special projects or a regular day-to-day type maintenance activity,” Daniel said. “It’ll be nice to have the extra resources.”
Daniel said Pilla Park is potentially eligible for Community Development Block Grant funding. If they were to receive this grant, the city could make more additions to the Pilla Park project.
“If we’re awarded CDBG funding, the cost to the city actually goes down,” Daniel said. “CDBG funding really opens up the possibility of what the scope of that project could be. So the improvements out there are just a little bit more impactful at less of a burden on the city resources.”
Daniel said the city will find out if they received the grant funding by December.
Daniel said the Parks and Recreations Department and the city manager’s office have also been working on a request for proposal for park master planning services to update the park’s current plan.
“What that will do is kind of lay out here are all the areas of park planning that we need to be focusing on over the next five to 10 years,” Daniel said.
Reach reporter Ryn Drummond at [email protected].
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