Starkville will soon repave a roughly half-mile walking track at J.L. King Park after getting a $25,000 grant from the Christopher Reeve Foundation.
Starkville Parks and Recreation Director Gerry Logan said the city applied for the grant about two months ago and learned it won it on Wednesday. The grant will allow the city to repave the track, which wraps around a football field in the northern portion of the park.
“What we proposed to do is repave that walking track and also do some sidewalk improvements,” Logan said. “If there’s money available after that, we’ll add some ADA-accessible picnic tables and some more benches.”
Logan said it’s the first time the city has applied for a grant through the Christopher Reeve Foundation. He said it’s not yet certain exactly when work will begin, but Parks and Recreation will move as quickly as possible to get started.
“We will start this process immediately to put out bids for the work and bring that stuff to the board of aldermen as soon as possible,” Logan said. “It’ll be done as soon as we can.”
The grant fully funds the project without any matching money from the city. Mayor Lynn Spruill said the money is paid through a reimbursement, which can allow the city to get started faster without having to wait for the money to come in from the foundation.
J.L. King Park’s walking track had been on the list of projects for the city to address within the next two or three years. The project is one that’s been requested by residents — former county NAACP President Chris Taylor asked the board of aldermen on Tuesday during their meeting when the city would repave the track.
“It’s been on our radar screen and Gerry has been awesome in getting grants,” Spruill said. “We didn’t think it’d be funded any time soon — we thought it would be next year or the year after. We’re really pleased it came through.”
Logan said the grant not only helps the city get to the project earlier than it would have, but frees up money for other projects in the future.
“We have a lot of projects we want to do and we’re always on the lookout for grants to help speed up some of those projects,” Gerry said. “In this case, we were planning to do the work, but it was just a matter of when. Getting this helps us speed up the project and supplement the budget to stretch our dollars further.”
The grant comes on the heels of aldermen approving more than $43,000 on Tuesday for projects to resurface both basketball courts at J.L. King Park, a basketball court and three tennis courts at McKee Park and converting one tennis court at McKee Park to four pickleball courts.
“This is another project that will impact a lot of people,” Logan said. “We’re excited to have the board’s support to move forward on this.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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