Blue Springs is one of nine Missouri communities recommended to the National Park Service to receive federal grants to assist with park and recreation needs.
The Blue Springs Parks and Recreation Department could receive $49,500 for the Young Park Disc Golf Course.
The grants are part of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is a federal program that can be used to acquire, develop and renovate outdoor recreation projects.
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources received 48 applications requesting more than $2.3 million in grant funding. The State Inter-Agency Council for Outdoor Recreation made the award recommendations.
Recommendations went to projects with the highest score based on meeting the recreational needs of the communities, planning goals and unique or specific attributes.
All projects require a 55 percent match. The funds are made available through the U.S. Department of Interior’s National Park Service and the National Park Service must approve the recommendations before the grants are awarded.
"We are very pleased to be one of the nine projects submitted to NPS for consideration and hopefully approval of funds for this project,” Roscoe Righter, parks and recreation director, said. “The disc golf course has been included in the Wilbur Young Park master plan for more than 20 years. We have tried to fund it a few times, without success.
“This time the citizen-based Renew the Blue group was instrumental in getting it moving, getting a commitment from City Council, and helping to write the grant application,” Righter said. “The Blue Springs School District, the Blue Springs Rotary Club, who is helping to fund the project, and the Kansas City Disc Golf Association all were involved and will be involved if we are successful in the construction and opening of this facility. It was a community effort to get us this far.
“I feel very confident that in November or December we will receive word from the NPS that we have been approved and can begin work.”
Righter said he expects a winter construction and an opening in 2009.
