Grants fund recreation projects across Southeast Tennessee,
Where bullfrogs once sunned themselves poolside, there’s a splash pad for youngsters, but there hasn’t been a usable pool for Etowah, Tennessee’s humans for more than a decade.
Now, thanks to state grants and an anonymous local donor, McMinn County’s easternmost town now will construct a long-awaited new pool and pool house to replace the former 1970s-era pool facility that was closed in 2007.
Of $901,144 in grant funding announced for five rural Chattanooga region communities, Etowah got the most at $375,000, followed closely by Manchester at $336,000. The other three projects are in Whitwell, Spring City and at Fall Creek Falls State Park.
The grants announced Aug. 20 are part of more than $15 million in grants from the Local Parks and Recreation Fund and Recreational Trails Program to help pay for recreational projects across the state.
Statewide, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will award about $13.5 million in grants to 51 communities and about $2.1 million in grants to 15 parks, communities and organizations across the state.
Etowah’s new pool facility will be on the same city property that has been changing shape for several years now. The site of the old pool became home to the town’s new splash pad in 2016.
“We are all very excited to know that we have been awarded this grant and are eagerly awaiting the contract arrival so that we can get started,” Etowah City Manager Tina Tuggle said Wednesday. In 2015, the local donor, whose name remains unreleased, committed to giving $300,000 to go with grant funding for a new pool described in grant documents as 30 feet wide by 60 feet long. The design will comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but Tuggle said the pool’s design could be larger once planning starts.
The city will kick in the additional $75,000 in matching funds and could provide more funding, if needed, she said.
In Manchester, city Parks and Recreation Director Bonnie Gamble said the $336,000 grant to the city, doubled by local matching funds, will pay for new LED lighting for the town’s new soccer facility off Highway 55 near Interstate 24, a prefabricated concrete bathroom for its baseball fields and renovations to the local playground.
Gamble said the bathroom gives baseball families much-needed facilities where there were none before, and the new soccer fields will have high-efficiency lighting.
“Then we’re doing an inclusive playground addition” at Fred Deadman Park, she said. Although the playground, built around 1996, isn’t showing its age from wear, Gamble said renovations will make sure features are accessible to those in wheelchairs or other mobility issues and meet other ADA requirements.
In Marion County, Whitwell City Park got a $60,500 grant, to be matched locally by the same amount, for renovations to the existing bathroom at the walking track, construction of new bathrooms at the horse arena and at the baseball fields, and to bring the park into ADA compliance.
For Spring City in Rhea County, a $29,644 grant will be matched with $7,412 in local funding to pay for the first phase of the Veterans Lakeside Greenway project and to convert an old highway road bed into a multiuse trail. The funds also will be used for meeting ADA regulations.
Fall Creek Falls State Park in Van Buren County received $100,000 in grant funding to go with $25,000 in matching funds to pay for resurfacing the Lake Trail, expansion of the parking area at the end of the trail adjacent to the dam and to install an ADA-compliant parking space.
“The match is being provided by Tennessee State Parks,” TDEC spokeswoman Kim Schofinski said via email.
Van Buren County Mayor Greg Wilson said there are no county funds involved in the state park project.