City awarded nearly $900K grant for park renovations

The Lodi Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department was recently notified that it will be the recipient of a $882,340 state grant for renovations at Blakely Park.

Renovations at the park will include the reconstruction of the baseball diamonds on the north side of the park, with the outfields to be used as soccer fields between seasons. Plans also call for the reconstruction of a basketball court on the southwest corner and installation of a new irrigation system and booster pump.

“So many of our sports fields are in basins and we have a lot of rain in the winter and in the early spring,” Parks and Recreation Director Jeff Hood said. “The primary purpose of those basins is to hold water, so that really affects our ability to have the games and practices that are scheduled. So, having a quality field that’s not in a basin will be a big boost for our sports programs.”

Lodi was one of 25 applicants out of 166 that was chosen to receive a portion of the $16 million available.

The basketball court renovations were not initially included in the grant proposal but after receiving feedback from the community the city made the decision to include the project.

“Being able to show that we listened to the community’s needs for the park and factoring that into the proposal, I think that was beneficial to our application,” Hood said.

According to Hood, the state was looking for projects in low-income neighborhoods with high unemployment and crime, and Blakely Park fit the bill. The median household income in that neighborhood is 30 percent lower than the city overall, and the unemployment rate is roughly 20 percent.

“Looking at those factors, it certainly met the targets of the grant program,” he said.

Hood said that water conservation — the city is looking to save approximately one million gallons of water annually with the renovations of the irrigation system and booster pump at Blakely Park — also played a role in the city’s application standing out among the others.

The grant funding is contingent upon adoption of the state budget. If approved, Hood estimates construction on the projects will take place in early 2018 and will be completed by the fall of 2018.

During his tenure with the city, Hood said he is not aware of the department receiving a grant this large. The closest was the $710,000 for the boat ramp at Lodi Lake.

With the $150,000 in block grant funding the department is expecting to receive, more than $1 million will be going into upgrades at Blakely Park in the coming years.

Hood said the grant funding the department received is roughly 70 percent of department’s capital expenditures in the last five years combined.