News

County wins $286,000 grant for Etowah Park improvements

By Lightning Reports, Published: September 7, 2022

Etowah Lions Park will get a $500,000 makeover thanks to a state grant.

Henderson County received a grant of $286,125 from the N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, Gov. Roy Cooper's announced last week. A required local dollar-for-dollar match means the park will get $572,000 worth of new equipment and other improvements.

“Our parks and recreation areas are so valuable to our communities and they’ve become more popular than ever,” Cooper said in a news release. “These projects we’re funding today will give people even more opportunities in North Carolina to build healthier and happier lives.”

The North Carolina Parks and Recreation Authority on Aug. 26 approved more than $17 million in grants for 39 local parks and recreation projects across the state. Local communities applied for the grants to fund land acquisition, development and renovation of public park and recreation areas. Each year, the authority is required to allocate 30 percent of PARTF’s total funding to local government projects.

The authority considered 49 local grant applications requesting $20.9 million in total. The maximum grant awarded for a single project was $500,000. Awardees must match funds dollar-for-dollar for the awarded amount.

This year, $17.9 million was allocated to PARTF for local projects—an amount at least triple that of most years in the last decade. With these awards, PARTF has now made more than 1,000 grants to build parks in communities across the state.

“Congratulations to the local governments that received Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grants to invest in the health and quality of life of their communities,” said D. Reid Wilson, secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. “The historic increases in funding by the legislature and Governor Cooper will result in more North Carolina families having ready access to outdoor recreation.”

In addition to the local grants program, the authority allocated $5.7 million to the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation for land acquisitions at Chimney Rock State Park in Rutherford County and Lake James State Park in Burke and McDowell counties. It will also fund several capital projects at Hammock’s Beach State Park in Onslow County, Morrow Mountain State Park in Stanly County and William B. Umstead State Park in Wake County.

The Parks and Recreation Trust Fund is administered through the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, which is part of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Local grants are awarded annually by the Authority at their quarterly meeting in August.