Gov. Robert Bentley has announced $133,650 in grants to improve parks in northeast Alabama.
Bentley announced $50,000 for the city of Oxford to upgrade a ball field for special needs children, a $46,650 grant to the city of Talladega for a renovation project at Veteran’s Park, and $37,000 to help renovate Moseley Park in the city of Lincoln.
All three grants are from Alabama’s share of the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund program.
“Parks are places where families can come and enjoy the outdoors,” Bentley said. “These improvements address some basic needs and will make our parks better places to visit and enjoy.
Oxford will install lighting and a parking area for the Field of Dreams used by A League of Our Own, a program that enables special needs children to participate in baseball.
Talladega plans modifications that will make Veteran’s Park more accessible to persons with disabilities, including two new restrooms and accessible curbs and sidewalks.
Lincoln will use its grant to renovate playground equipment and a basketball court at Moseley Park. The design of the new equipment will permit use by children with disabilities.
Bentley notified mayors Leon Smith of Oxford, Larry Barton of Talladega and Claude “Bud” Kitchin of Lincoln that the grants had been approved. Each city is supplying additional resources that equal or exceed their project grants. LWCF grants require a 50 percent local match that can be in the form of money, materials or labor.
Congress created the LWCF program in 1964 to assist states with the development and preservation of outdoor recreational facilities. The Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs is administering the grants.
ADECA manages a wide range of programs that support law enforcement, economic development, workforce development, recreation, energy conservation and water resource management.
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Contact Jim Plott or Larry Childers