The Meridian City Council on Tuesday is set to explore potential grant opportunities that would help bring a proposed skatepark to life after Councilwoman Ty Bell Lindsey requested council authorization to begin the process.
Efforts to construct a skatepark took off in May 2022 when the City Council agreed to pay $14,250 to Seattle-based Grindline Skateparks Inc. to design a custom park for Meridian. After meeting with local skaters and members of the community, Grindline CEO Matt Fluegee unveiled the design in November 2022.
Based on feedback from residents and city officials, Grindline’s design calls for a roughly 10,000 square foot skatepark to be built at Ben Arthur Davis Park. Estimated costs for the project in 2022 were approximately $750,000.
In a work session last week, Lindsey told council members she had identified five potential grant opportunities to get the ball rolling toward that $750,000 goal. The first grant, from the Mississippi Outdoors Stewardship Trust, was brought up during the Mississippi Municipal League’s Small Town Conference earlier this year, she said, however the deadline was too soon to get an application in for the 2023 awards year.
“There’s no way we could have got it in time,” she said.
Lindsey said she wants the council to approve an application for the 2024 awards year and get the ball rolling on the grant writing process.
Another grant opportunity is from The Skatepark Project, formerly known as the Tony Hawk Foundation. The organization provides grants to help fund construction of community skateparks.
Lindsey said she explored applying for a grant from The Skatepark Project through her nonprofit, the Ty Bell Lindsey Foundation, which she founded to assist in the skatepark fundraising. Partnering with the city, however, will increase the amount of money the skatepark project is eligible to receive, she said.
A third grant, Lindsey said, is available through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi. The Building a Healthy Mississippi grant has a maximum award of $100,000, she said.
The final two grants, the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund and a Recreational Trails grant, which is federally funded but administered through the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, are both reimbursable grants, Lindsey said, meaning the city would need to put up the money for the skatepark project but would be paid back later.
Having the council formally vote on the grant applications is necessary for East Central Planning and Development District, which helps the city with the grant writing process, to begin the process, Lindsey said.
Councilman George Thomas said he will vote to ask ECPDD to at least explore the grant opportunities and see what funding may be available for the skatepark project.
“I don’t have a problem asking them to look at it,” he said.
In addition the the grants, Lindsey said she has also identified funding the city already has available that could be redirected to the skatepark if the council wills it. Earlier this year, the council issued a $5 million bond for improvements to the city’s parks and recreational facilities, and some of that funding could be used for the skatepark, she said. The city also has money allocated for salaries of empty positions, and the council has funding in its legislative fund that could be used as well.
Lindsey also mentioned the possibly of using funds from one of two $6 million paving bonds issued by the council in 2021 and 2022. Most of that funding has already been spent or allocated toward other projects.
Councilman Joe Norwood Jr. said the council agreed at the beginning of the skatepark project to cover the costs for the design. The construction costs were to be covered through fundraising. Allocating more taxpayer dollars to the project would require council members to go back on their word, he said.