The Parks and Recreation Commission will focus on creating two
new parks and making improvements to other facilities in their
application for statewide park program grants.
The county parks and recreation commission will focus on creating two new parks and making improvements to other facilities in their application for statewide park program grants.
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors on May 24 approved a resolution submitted by the commissioners with the list of projects they want to propose as applications.
The state grant program applications are due July 1, and it is a competitive process. The commissioners held public meetings and conducted surveys to get input from the community on what they most want to see at new and existing parks in San Benito County. Using that input, as well as a scoring matrix from the state, the commissioners came up with projects at four locations.
The grant requests can be for $100,000 to $5 million, and the state has $184 million to give out from Proposition 84 funding.
After looking through feedback from community workshops, focus groups and more than 400 surveys, the commissioners decided at their May 17 meeting which applications to recommend to the supervisors. They will focus on creating a river parkway, a regional park, improvements to Veterans Memorial Park and a joint project with the Tres Pinos School District to create sporting fields.
Part of the application requirement is that the projects must be completed in three years. The scoring matrix is complicated, and awards points based on a variety of criteria. The projects that will get funding are those with the highest scores.
“The first criteria is that the parks and projects serve underserved residents,” said Janelle Cox, a county management analyst. “The other is that the park serves a population that is low-income. The other criteria in the matrix could help identify different projects based on score points.”
Cox attached spreadsheets that ranked the amenities residents selected as the most important to them at the community workshops and through the surveys to assist the commissioners in selecting projects at the different park locations.
“There is a section of the application to talk about unique components of the county,” Cox said. “We can write to address things (there.)”
Commissioner Don Kelley, chairman of the commission, was concerned about putting similar features at different park locations because he didn’t want the county applications to be competing against each other. Cox pointed out that all the applications will be competing against each other, within the county and statewide, so that each application will be considered on its own merit and ranked.
Steve Wittry, the county’s public works director, reminded the commissioners that they should consider the ongoing maintenance aspects to projects they suggest.
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THE PROJECTS
River Parkway:
Segment of the trail to be completed for walking, biking and equestrian uses
Restrooms
Picnic and sitting areas
Interpretive Signs
Multiple entrance points
Regional Park:
Picnic and barbecue areas
Pond and nature study area
Large, open grass fields
Restrooms
Dog park:
Amphitheater
Solar lighting
Veterans Memorial Park:
Field realignment
Perimeter walk
Multipurpose room, community center or teen center
Integrate water conservation
Tres Pinos School Park – Joint county/school district project:
Football field
Renovation of softball field
Perimeter walk
Future lighting infrastructure
