Haslam Announces Recreation Trails Program Grant for Surgoinsville

$120,000 Grant for Construction of New Trail, Trail Head Facility

SURGOINSVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Environment and Conservation Commissioner Bob Martineau awarded a $120,000 Recreational Trails Program (RTP) grant to the town of Surgoinsville on August 14 for the construction of a Creek Side trail and trail head facility.

“This recreational grant will assist the town of Surgoinsville in improving and expanding community amenities such as trails, greenways and recreational facilities,” Haslam said. “The project will make important connections between Creek Side Park and Riverfront Park, connecting downtown communities.”

The RTP grant will enable the city to connect Creek Side Park to Riverfront Park by constructing a six-foot-wide, 100-foot-long paved trail from an existing pavilion at Creek Side Park. Surgoinsville will also build an ADA-accessible trail head facility, which will include restrooms, at Riverfront Park.

The Recreational Trails Program is a federally-funded program established to distribute funding for diverse recreation trail projects. The funds are available to federal, state and local government agencies, as well as non-profit organizations under certain conditions.

Recreational Trails Program grants may be used for non-routine maintenance and restoration of existing trails, development and rehabilitation, trailside or trailhead facilities such as restrooms, kiosks and parking lots, construction of new trails and land acquisition for recreational trails or corridors.

“This grant will help fund an outstanding project, including the development of a new trail and trail head facility,” Martineau said. “This new trail will also help enhance the efforts to promote a healthy Tennessee, by expanding the recreational opportunities in this community.”

Funding for RTP grants is provided by the Federal Highway Administration through the federal Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act. The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation administers this grant program for the state. The maximum federal share for each project is 80 percent, with RTP grant recipients providing a 20 percent match.

Grant recipients are selected through a scoring process with careful consideration given to the projects that met the selection criteria and expressed the greatest local recreation need.

To learn more about the RTP grant program and other recreation or conservation-based grant programs available in the future, please visit http://tn.gov/environment/recreation/grants.shtml. For more information about the RTP grant program, contact Gerald Parish at 615-532-0538 or Gerald.Parish@tn.gov.

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