By Jim Bloch
The city of St. Clair has applied for a $30,000 grant from the St. Clair County Parks and Recreation Commission to help with the development of a splashpad, multi-use sports court and a pathway project at Klecha Park.
The park, located on Goffe Street east of Hillside Cemetery, is the only significant recreational area on the city’s south side. It was the former home of St. Clair Little League.
Trice Hawkins, the city’s recreation director, estimated the overall cost of the renovations at $1 million.
The city council voted unanimously at its regular meeting Sept. 5 to approve the grant submission.
“It’s part of the park millage fund,” said Hawkins, talking about the available pool of grant dollars, as heard on the recording of the meeting posted on YouTube. “A portion of the millage funds are distributed to local communities.”
The county puts another slice of the millage dollars in pool from which localities may apply for grants.
“We have used this grant in the past for our skate park,” Hawkins said.
The commission may choose to fund one, two or all three of the city’s priorities, perhaps over multiple years. Hawkins is asking for $10,000 for the splash pad, $10,000 for the multi-use court and $10,000 for the trail.
The grant does not require matching funds from the city.
“Thank you, Trice,” said Mayor Bill Cedar. “Good luck.”
Other funding sources
“The month of September is a big month for Klecha Park,” said Hawkins. “We did apply for the second round of the DNR Spark grants. Right now the schedule is that they’ll announce those in September.”
The Spark grants were created through the Building Michigan Together Plan, which Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed in March 2022. The goal of plan is to inject an “historic infusion” of federal money into the refurbishment of state and local parks.
A total of $65 million is available in three rounds.
The city’s grant application asked for $720,000 for phase one of the Klecha Park overhaul, which includes $250,000 for the Chief Donald Barnum Memorial splash pad, $200,000 for a new playground, sidewalk, multi-use path, gravel parking lot, landscaping and other upgrades. The new playground will feature a playscape, swings, a play structure for tots and a whirl, replacing the aging merry-go-round. The city match of $180,000 will bring the grant to $900,000.
“We have a pending Community Foundation grant,” said Hawkins. “As a rec commission, we hope to announce a major sponsorship for our splashpad in the month of September, if not October. So there are a lot of things pending for Klecha Park. We hope to have answers for that real soon. And we’ve done some successful fundraising over the summer, too.”
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
