VAN BUREN -- Crawford County plans to look for more money to add features at Diamond Center Park to get residents up and moving outside.
The Quorum Court voted 11-0 Monday to allocate a $30,000 grant from the National Fitness Campaign to go toward construction and launch of a new Fitness Court -- a type of outdoor gym the National Fitness Campaign works to provide -- at Diamond Center Park on Kibler Road in Van Buren. The project will be free to use and open to the public by the end of 2024, according to the resolution.
Justices of the peace also approved applying for a 50-50 outdoor recreation matching grant from the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism for another project at the same park.
Kevin Arnold and Brad Martin, who represent districts 1 and 5 in the county respectively, were absent.
County Judge Chris Keith said he thinks the Fitness Court would be a "great addition," allowing families to do more physical fitness activities and be together outdoors. The county applied for the $30,000 grant at no cost to taxpayers a few months ago.
The National Fitness Campaign is a wellness consulting firm based in San Francisco dedicated to building healthy communities across the country in partnership with health care providers, according to its LinkedIn profile. It works with municipalities, schools and other organizations to fund, build, promote and activate a "comprehensive community wellness campaign" based around its Fitness Court and provides various resources and services to encourage further outdoor exercise.
The Fitness Court has seven "zones" designed to collectively provide a full body workout in seven minutes, according to the National Fitness Campaign website. Each zone has tools dedicated to facilitating a distinct form of movement for people of all ages and fitness levels. These forms include core, squat, push, lunge, pull, agility and bend.
Keith said the Fitness Court would cost the county about $175,000-$185,000 overall to implement. The county will seek additional sources of money to supplement the $30,000 grant for the project, such as donations and other grants.
"To my knowledge, there's no protocol on being able to use other grants along with this grant, but we're going to be going out to different individuals and different businesses and seeing if we can get donations to go forward with this as well," Keith said after the meeting.
However, Keith said the outdoor recreation matching grant would be used to implement a different project at Diamond Center Park, although the specifics aren't set in stone yet. The county took suggestions from the community on how to use the grant, with a walking trail being one possibility. The county will apply for a $100,000 grant.
Elaine Stanfield, administrative assistant to the county judge, said Diamond Center Park is the county's only park facility.
Thomas Saccente can be reached by email at [email protected].
Grant deadline
Applications for outdoor recreation matching grants for fiscal 2024 have to be submitted as a hard copy and postmarked no later than Aug. 25.
Source: Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism website