Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Farmington Mayor Ron Dugan’s 12-year-old granddaughter left the house and headed to the Farmington basketball court. She came back a few minutes later, basketball in hand.
“The hoops are down,” she reported.
Mayor Dugan had forgotten to let her know the hoops had to be taken down in May because of concerns that the court’s cracked concrete was a “trip hazard.”
A new grant Farmington just received should change all of that.
The Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) announced approval Sept. 21 of nine community revitalization micro-grant awards totaling $154,745.
One grant was for $14,000 to Farmington to rehabilitate the deteriorating basketball court adjacent to the downtown city park.
“Micro-grants are a unique aspect of the Community Revitalization Grants program,” said CERB Chair Mark Urdahl. “These grants are funding projects that are small in scale but can have an enormous impact on the livability of our communities.”
“The average town that won was 64 times larger than Farmington,” said Mayor Ron Dugan. “We’re pretty proud of that, the fact that we got it.”
He said the $14,000 grant is enough to do the minimum to get the court useable again while a letter writing campaign will begin to raise more money.
Dugan said with about $20,000 they can remove the cracked concrete on the 100 X 48 foot court, put down a gravel base and install a new surface, new fences and two baskets.
The court was originally built in the 1940s, as a donation from the Kiwanis Club.
The 2012 Washington Legislature approved $12 million for two competitive grant programs targeted to help local governments. These are one-time grants, and all the funds will be awarded by the end of the year.
The Board received requests totaling $48.3 million from 100 jurisdictions.
Community revitalization micro-grants are $20,000 or less. Projects awarded funding will improve local economic and recreational activity by building facilities such as bike racks, installing new street lighting, constructing community gardens and developing pedestrian trails in downtown areas.
“I think we had a good project, a good application and four great letters of recommendation from people in the community,” Dugan said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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