
Garrett Bryant, Sampson County Parks and Rec director, presents his request to the Clinton City Council, asking for approval to apply for a $500,000 grant for a ADA playground and splash pad.
Michael B. Hardison | Sampson Independent
The first steps to bringing a new special needs accessible playground to Clinton are being made following City Council’s unanimous approval to apply for a half-million dollar grant.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, council addressed its first order of new business for the new year — consideration of adopting a resolution for an accessible park grant in the amount of $500,000 through the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.
Sampson County Parks and Rec Director Garrett Bryant presented the rec department’s proposal. His hope, along with that of the advisory board, should the grant be awarded, was for construction of a full ADA (Americans with Disabilities) accessible playground and splash pad at Newkirk Park.
“The Recreation and Parks Department is seeking consideration for adopting a resolution in support of applying for an accessible park grant,” he said. “The accessible park grant program provides $12.5 million in matching grants for parks and recreation to benefit people living with disabilities in North Carolina. Applicants may be able to request a maximum of $500,000 with each application, and must match the grant with at least $1 of local funds for every $5 in grant funds.”
Clinton Mayor Lew Starling opened discussions, asking council if they had questions about the grant application. There were none pertaining to that topic but Councilman Daniel Ruggles did offer a deeper understanding of the proposed project.
“Mr. Ruggles I know you’ve been involved in this a lot, and we appreciate your good work and on help with this,” Starling said. “Is there any comments you’d like to make before we go to vote.”
Ruggles said he was excited about the project and looking forward to it coming to fruition.
“Mr. Bryant’s done a fantastic job with Parks and Rec around Royal Lane and the Sampson Center, so he’s just trying to spread some of the love around. On the playground, I think I’m correct in saying this, but I don’t think there’s another playground to this level in the entire county. I think you have to go outside the county for a splash pad.
He continued, “Where Newkirk Park is, you’ve got a lot of young kids in that area close to downtown, and we’ve got an elementary school right down the street. So looking at it, in general, it’s just a great place for something like this.”
Ruggles also explained that the $500,000 from the accessible park grant would not cover the entire cost of the project. While true, he was optimistic about obtaining the remainder of the funded needed if the city were awarded the grant.
“The playground, it’s about a $600,000 to $610,000 project,” Ruggles said. “Hopefully, we can get the $500,000 from this and then possibly some other grants, local funds and/or donations to offset the other $100,000 to $120,000, or wherever we are at after the grant. Either way, I’m personally excited and in full support of the playground and splash pad and I hope it’ll work on out.”
Mayor Pro Tem Marcus Becton asked a follow-up question after Rugglesr’ remarks.“I know this is in the early stages, but where are you looking at placing this?” Becton asked.
”I actually have a drawing of it, but to answer your question, we are actually looking at placing it where the current playground is at Newkirk, the longer playground, closer to the facilities,” Bryant responded.
Councilwoman Wanda Corbett didn’t have a question but did express her complete exuberance over the project, saying it had touched her heart personally.
“I personally am very excited about the opportunity, because as a parent of three children on the spectrum, we travel to Cumberland County to use the splash pad over there,” she said smiling. “Things that people do take for granted is that those type of areas are conducive to a child being able to run free. A lot of times people don’t think and don’t really realize that all children cannot run free.
“Because of the way the splash pad is built, it allows our ADA children to have just as much fun, if not more,” Corbett added. “We’re also able to put them down and allow them to roam, because they are protected on every hand, because of the way these structures are built for children with disabilities. Even the enclosures, they are safe to the degree that little Johnny can just do his thing to his heart’s content, so I’m very excited by all this,” Corbett attested.
Starling asked Bryant a final question about the city’s chances of receiving the grant.
“I know it’s still early, and I hate to ask, but do you think we have a good chance to get it?” Starling queried.
“I think we do!” Bryant replied. “Typically, a lot of these grants look at first time breaking ground on certain areas. Therefore, where we are looking at placing this particular facility, will be the first time something like this has (been) broken on that ground. So I believe we have a strong possibility of getting it.”
That confidence was shared by Starling, who, in turn, sought a motion from a mutually excited council, all who jumped in to make a motion to move forward.
“All right, so with that, I’ll entertain a motion that we make application for this grant. It seems everybody wants to make a motion,” Starling said, the audience laughing. “I’ve got a motion from Mr. (Holden) Dubose and a second by Rev. Becton, with no further discussion, we look forward to seeing this going forward.
“I feel very confident as well, that if we’re able to get the grant for this, we can find the rest needed to get this done,” the mayor added. “It’s very much a need in Sampson County that we have to rise to the challenge and complete. I see former banker Mr. (Bill) Scott here, as he knows, we’ll have to fill the gap. We’re kind of working from a deficit but we’ll make it work out.”
Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-249-4231. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.