By Mike Henderson
Darke County Parks
Each year the Darke County Park District receives the annual settlement from their tax levies. $75,000 of those funds are given back to participating communities in Darke County through the community grant program. The grant funds are used to benefit and improve active recreational facilities such as baseball and softball fields, children’s playgrounds, tennis and basketball courts, swimming pools, and other qualifying park facilities.
This year’s park grants have been awarded to the following communities with a brief description of their projects:
Ansonia: Install a new border fence adjacent to the village park consisting of a post and pipe rail system to replace a worn-out parking lot barrier fence in order to help address safety concerns.
Arcanum: Provide masonry tuck pointing repairs to dugouts along with baseball field fence replacement and repairs.
Bradford: Replace an existing park shelter electrical panel in Y-Yard Park and also a main electrical panel that operates a bank of lights in the north side of the park located beside the bike trail.
Castine: Painting of the park shelter house roof and painting of the spring animals park playground recreational equipment.
Gettysburg: LED Light replacements for the lighting fixtures located in the Valentine building within the community park.
Gordon: Removal of gravel and replacement with certified mulch within the community park playground.
Greenville: Funding towards a new shade shelter to be located at the South Park near the splash pad facility.
Hollansburg: Provide a new picnic shelter house in the village park which will replace a former unsafe shelter house that has been removed.
North Star: Provide funding towards the installation of three infant and toddler-accessible changing stations in the new park restrooms and partial funding towards a playground slide located within the community park.
Osgood: Funding to help replace a ballfield backstop fence behind home plate in the village park.
Palestine: Funding towards the replacement of the village park entrance security gates and replacement of the baseball bleacher shelter roof located within the village park.
Pitsburg: Provide funding towards the replacement of an existing worn-out wood playground system with a new safer playground equipment set.
Rossburg: Funding for new playground mulch and a Tic-Tac-Toe Activity panel.
Versailles: Funding for the purchases of a new shade screen support system and canopy at Ward Park swimming pool facility.
Wayne Lakes: Replace roofing shingles and fascia to the Rod McNutt shelter house with new metal roof to match other existing Wayne Lakes Park structures.
The community grants program back in 1995 and since that time over $1,075,000 has been awarded to county community parks. Every March each of the 21 Darke County communities are invited to attend a community grants meeting where they receive a grant packet describing the possible uses for funds and details of the grant application process as well as submittal data and deadlines required.
They then submit their grant application by May 15th and a committee of seven people including the three Darke County Parks’ Board of Commissioners, reviews the applications by mid-June.
The volunteer grant committee members are assigned parks to visit and to review prospective project sites and become familiar with the projects. The volunteer committee members may also contact the village representatives with any questions they have regarding the projects. The volunteer committee then meets as a whole to mindfully discuss and select the City/village recipients within Darke County. The grant recipients are notified, and the communities receiving awards may begin work on their project. By December 1st, typically the projects are completed and all paperwork is then submitted to the Darke County Park for review. Upon review and approval of the paperwork, the Darke County Parks reimbursement checks will be written and distributed to the communities for project materials and services up to the grant award amount.
Darke County Park Director Robb Clifford said about the program: “It’s so exciting to see how the Park District can give back to the communities with these funds. Each year I look forward to seeing what projects will be submitted. Darke County Parks being able to fund over 1 million dollars in projects throughout the life of this program is fantastic!”
Darke County Parks thanks all those communities for participating in the park grant application process and for successfully completing the communities 2024 park projects.
For more information or questions regarding the community grants program please contact Grant Coordinator, Deb Fall at the Darke County Park Office at 937-548-0165 or [email protected].
