STARKVILLE – Residents who frequent McKee and J.L. King parks could see new outdoor gym areas constructed by January.
But the city still needs at least an additional $330,000 to bring both sites to fruition.

“There’s enough activity already (at those parks) that people would support these kinds of things,” Ward 2 Alderwoman Sandra Sistrunk told The Dispatch on Friday. “… People at J.L. King Park have asked for additional activities up there.
“… Now it’s just a question of, can we come up with the additional money?” she added.

The city was awarded a $30,000 grant in April for the project from the National Fitness Campaign, a wellness consulting firm that partners with local municipalities across the country to build fitness areas, Sistrunk said during the board of aldermen work session Friday at City Hall. The board now has until Oct. 21 to find additional funding or forfeit the $30,000.

Aldermen are set to enter a nonbinding agreement with the firm to cover remaining costs for the project. Under the agreement, the city can send the grant back if they cannot cover the costs of the outdoor areas by the firm’s deadline.

“If funding happens, we’ll move on to step two,” Sistrunk said. “If funding doesn’t happen, no harm, no foul.”

Initial plans for the courts, provided by the firm, include two sides: a studio side for events like yoga, zumba and dance classes and another side with equipment for core, squat and agility training.

The cost of the two courts could balloon to as much as $610,000 with potential additions, such as an art wall and shading at both sites, Sistrunk said.

“Depending on how you’re doing it, they’ve got some (prefabricated) stuff, or you can do custom stuff, and each of these things drives costs up,” Sistrunk said. “If you do custom art, if you add a shade, it drives the cost up.”

Sistrunk said she hopes the board can find grant funding from local partners like banks, hospitals and local foundations to cover the remaining costs of the project before its deadline.

“We have a list of agencies that have traditionally helped with funding this sort of thing, and we’ll be approaching them,” Sistrunk said.

Based on how fundraising efforts go, Sistrunk said, the board could pivot to funding one of the courts rather than both, which reduces the additional cost of the project to only $150,000.

Mayor Lynn Spruill said she believes the areas would be a wonderful addition, and potentially something the board may consider partially funding if fundraising efforts fall short.

“I think we have some potential funding available for them,” Spruill said. “… But in terms of getting the funding, that’ll potentially be a board decision as to what the trade-off will be, and … if anything else rises to a need, as opposed to a want.”

If a decision needs to be made between funding the two courts, Spruill said she leans to funding the J.L. King site because of available space and its lack of offerings for adults.

“I’m inclined to J.L. King just because I think that type of thing would fit well,” Spruill said. “They have got the walking track, and I don’t think they have anything that is related in that same kind of way.”

The board placed approval of entering into the nonbinding agreement on its consent agenda for consideration during its Tuesday meeting at City Hall.

READER FAVORITES

• 

  Man shot following illegal dice game in Clay County

  By Paloma Green • 1 day ago