We need your help to get more recreational facilities in SoWal! Walton County has applied for a grant for the acquisition of 7 acres for recreational land next to SWHS on JD Miller Road. The county is planning on putting tennis courts, a playground, and community center on this land. The grant amount applied for is $1.44 Million with the county providing $360,000 for the purchase of the land. If the county does not get the grant, the land will have to be paid for with recreational plat fees, which means that some of the other recreational projects that are planned, will not get funded, or that the courts and community center will have to wait.
As part of the grant application, there is a Governing Board Selection committee who will be meeting on Friday, November 2nd, in the Cabinet Meeting Room at the Capital in Tallahassee. During this meeting, the applicants are allowed to present additional information on the project and a chance to convince the committee that their project is worthwhile. The committee then awards additional points to the application based on their opinion of the project. In the past, projects seem to score higher when there is a larger group representing the project and when there are people from the applicant community willing to speak in favor of the project and tell how much it is needed. We are only allowed 5 minutes for applicant presentation and 5 minutes for public comment.
The county has also applied for another separate grant to help develop the new 10 acres at Helen McCall Park. This is where a new football field and the larger playground that the Mission Playpark! Group has been working on, will go. Currently, the playground is slated to be completed with dollars collected from recreational plat fees. The sport field, running trail and other improvements will hopefully be paid for by this second grant. This grant will not be discussed on Friday.
Please support additional recreational facilities in the southern Walton County area by attending the grant meeting on Friday. We need as much grant money as we can get to develop more recreational areas here. Commissioner Meadows and the county have worked hard to get us more facilities ? let?s support their efforts. The county applied for this same grant last year and didn?t get it. The other applicants that did get awarded the grant showed up in great numbers at the meeting.
The presentations start at 8am (Eastern Time Zone) in the Capital Meeting Room at the Capital in Tallahassee. We don?t know when we?ll be on the agenda, but we think it will be early. We need as many people as we can to be at the presentation at 8am (7am our time). Please let me know if you plan on attending so we can let Cindy Meadow?s office know. They are trying to get a headcount.
Thanks!
As part of the grant application, there is a Governing Board Selection committee who will be meeting on Friday, November 2nd, in the Cabinet Meeting Room at the Capital in Tallahassee. During this meeting, the applicants are allowed to present additional information on the project and a chance to convince the committee that their project is worthwhile. The committee then awards additional points to the application based on their opinion of the project. In the past, projects seem to score higher when there is a larger group representing the project and when there are people from the applicant community willing to speak in favor of the project and tell how much it is needed. We are only allowed 5 minutes for applicant presentation and 5 minutes for public comment.
The county has also applied for another separate grant to help develop the new 10 acres at Helen McCall Park. This is where a new football field and the larger playground that the Mission Playpark! Group has been working on, will go. Currently, the playground is slated to be completed with dollars collected from recreational plat fees. The sport field, running trail and other improvements will hopefully be paid for by this second grant. This grant will not be discussed on Friday.
Please support additional recreational facilities in the southern Walton County area by attending the grant meeting on Friday. We need as much grant money as we can get to develop more recreational areas here. Commissioner Meadows and the county have worked hard to get us more facilities ? let?s support their efforts. The county applied for this same grant last year and didn?t get it. The other applicants that did get awarded the grant showed up in great numbers at the meeting.
The presentations start at 8am (Eastern Time Zone) in the Capital Meeting Room at the Capital in Tallahassee. We don?t know when we?ll be on the agenda, but we think it will be early. We need as many people as we can to be at the presentation at 8am (7am our time). Please let me know if you plan on attending so we can let Cindy Meadow?s office know. They are trying to get a headcount.
Thanks!
