11/2/2009 6:18:00 PM Lining up for youth sports grants
By David Schueller
Scores of local governments in Hennepin County are tossing grant applications into the hopper hoping they'll be chosen to receive anywhere from $10,000 to $400,000 in funding for youth sports and recreation projects.
The money comes from excess taxes collected for the new Twins stadium.
This year, out of $4 million of excess taxes, half goes to keeping Hennepin County libraries open on Sundays and the other half goes to grants for youth activities and sports.
During times of budget cuts for local governments, the projects may be making for some of the few new facilities being funded, while other projects sit on hold.
The deadline for the grant applications was Nov. 2, and last week at least six cities and one school district in the Lake Minnetonka area were planning to apply.
Wayzata planned to send in two applications, after some wrangling in two council meetings.
The city had at first planned to only send one for improvements to Klapprich Park lights, hockey boards and a sidewalk, at a total cost of $230,000, and chose that project after looking at its capital improvement projects list to see if any items qualified, said City Engineer Mike Kelly. The request is for $115,000.
"The city doesn't have any money set aside currently for the skate park project," Kelly said. "It does have money set aside for the Klapprich Park project."
There was also concern that the city would be left trying to fund part of a project if it doesn't get the whole grant amount.
No money from the grant can be used for maintenance or other ongoing expenses.
At an Oct. 20 meeting, resident Scott Tripps asked the city also to apply for a skate plaza project at Wayzata West Middle School, which led to the council on Oct. 27 voting to apply in a separate application.
That project has been talked about for nearly a decade, but it was removed from the capital improvement plan last year because of costs that ranged from $100,000 to $300,000.
"The biggest issue was funding," Tripps said. "Suddenly we find ourselves in a really difficult year of tight budgets and cost cutting measures and yet up pops this terrific grant opportunity through Hennepin County that is designed for youth sports and recreational activities and literally would be able to allow us to build this park, build this plaza. And so we wanted to put that request toward the City Council."
Examples of possible projects given by the county include athletic fields, skate parks, disc golf courses and trails.
The agency in charge of running the grant program is the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission, which will recommend projects in December for a final decision later that month by the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners.
Program Director Steve Olson said the program could last 20 years, depending on the stadium bonds.
"There is a tremendous amount of identified sports facilities projects. Because of the length of this program not everyone is queuing those up in the first go-around," Olson said.
He said he expected about 75 applications this time, but there's a chance some of the projects that aren't chosen could be used for the next application cycle.
Because the program got a late start, there will be two grant cycles in 2010.
Olson said part of its goal is to encourage youth sports organizations to partner with local units of government. Only local governments can actually apply.
"It's the first of many," Olson said. "As time goes on we will find more and more groups that are interested in partnering with their units of governments in order to get some things to happen for their particular sport or their particular user group."
The cities of Minnetonka and Hopkins are teaming up to send in an application to build a destination playground at Shady Oak Beach, which is expected to increase the number of people who visit the beach from 47,000 per season to 67,000 and be roughly four times the size of playgrounds at Minnetonka's neighborhood parks, according to Minnetonka Recreation Services Director Dave Johnson.
The total cost of the project is $375,000, and the request is for half that amount, with construction planned to begin in the fall of 2010.
"I think it's a tremendous opportunity, the grant program itself," Johnson said. "I think the county has set it up in a way where it is really going to be a benefit to a lot of communities, a lot of youth that play recreational activities, and I just think it is going to be a very well received grant program in years to come."
