OLYMPIA - Bremerton city officials will receive a symbolic check Wednesday for scoring the highest in two state competitions and winning grants from the state Recreation and Conservation Funding Board.
Bremerton's two projects - the development of a park and construction of a waterfront boardwalk - received the top scores in separate grant competitions, earning the city special recognition and $2.2 million in funding.
Bill Chapman, a member of the state funding board, will present the giant check to city council members at their meeting at 5:30 P.M., Wednesday, in the Norm Dicks Government Center, 345 6th St., Bremerton.
Bremerton scored top points among 24 projects competing for funding in the trails category of the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program, which provides grants to develop recreational opportunities and conserve wild lands and farmlands. The city will receive a $2 million grant to help build a more than half-mile boardwalk over the water from the Bremerton-Seattle ferry terminal to the city's most-used park, Evergreen-Rotary Park. The trail will be an extension of the Louis Mentor Boardwalk and will increase waterfront access in the city by almost 50 percent.
"These grants help local communities provide outdoor places for their residents to play, recreate and re-energize," Chapman said. "They are vital to ensuring our communities are great places to live and work."
Bremerton also received the top score among three projects competing for funding in the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides grants for buying land and developing public outdoor facilities. Bremerton earned a $201,510 grant to develop a 7-acre park in central Bremerton with parking, restrooms, a tree grove, playground, sheltered picnic area, bike racks, a drinking fountain, interpretive signs and pathways. The city plans to enhance an historical patch of blueberry shrubs at this park.
Bremerton will contribute $6.4 million total in matching resources, including donations, cash, labor and materials for both projects.
The competition for grants is high, with projects rated by citizens and professional staff on many factors, such as need, how well the project is designed, if the trail connects to existing trail networks, how close the project is to major population centers and how much the community supports a project.
"Only the best of the best projects gets funded-just the cream of the cream," Chapman said. "Bremerton can be proud that it competed successfully with both these projects. Mayor Cary Bozeman and the whole city council provided consistent leadership, and staff assembled the highest quality projects and winning grant applications. Projects like these help keep Bremerton a great place to live."
The Recreation and Conservation Funding Board, through the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program and the Land and Water Conservation Fund, has awarded more than $600 million to more than 1,440 projects statewide. Grantees have contributed more than $460 million in matching resources, bringing the total to more than $1 billion invested in recreation, parks and habitat in Washington.
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