Haslam Awards $565,000 in Parks and Recreation Grants

 

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Environment and Conservation Commissioner Bob Martineau today awarded $565,000 in Recreational Trails Program grants to recipients across Tennessee.

 

“These grants help local governments and organizations enhance or expand community amenities such as trails, greenways and recreational facilities,” Haslam said. “I am pleased this year’s grant awards will allow us to help communities across the state make the outdoors more accessible to Tennesseans.”

 

The Recreational Trails Program is a federally-funded program established to distribute funding for motorized, non-motorized and diverse recreation trail projects. The funds are available to federal, state and local government agencies, as well as non-profit organizations that have obtained IRS 501(c)(3) status and have a written trail management agreement with the agency that owns the property where the trail project is located. 

 

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. 

 

“These awards will help fund some outstanding projects, including the development of new greenways and trails and more ADA-compliant facilities,” said Martineau. “We are excited to be in a position to make a variety of recreational opportunities a reality for these seven communities.” 

 

Funding for RTP grants is provided by the Federal Highway Administration through the federal Safe, Accountable, Flexible, 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 were 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. A complete list of the grants announced today follows. 

 

 

County	Name of the Recipient Organization	Grant Amount	Brief Project Description
Cocke	City of Newport	$89,600	For the acquisition and development of a park and float facility on the Pigeon River. Proposed improvements include an access road, parking lot, small greenway trail, boat-launch area and restroom facility.
Henderson	Natchez Trace State Park	$16,000	To reroute and refurbish the Red Leaves backpacking trail.
Marshall	Henry Horton State Park	$26,000	To improve access to the Duck River Blueway at two points, including improvements to the picnic area access road, the purchase of kayaks and canoes, programming on environmental education, water safety education and overnight campground access.
McMinn	City of Athens	$120,000	For the development and restoration of Mouse Creek Trail, including ADA access.
Montgomery	Montgomery County	$120,000	Phase II construction of the ADA-accessible boardwalk trail.
Shelby	Memphis Community Development Council	$88,400	For the provision of a 12-foot-wide hard surface, non-motorized, multi-use trail from Overton Park to the pedestrian-signaled intersection at East Parkway and Sam Cooper roads.
Unicoi	Town of Unicoi	$105,000	For improvements to the Pinnacle Tower trailhead, including the installation of a bathroom facility.