The chair of the Jacksonville city council’s parks and lakes committee says the council must act quickly to get a grant for new playground equipment.
The equipment would go to Nichols Park. Alderwoman Lori Large Oldenettal received a consensus opinion from the city council Monday night that aldermen and women want the money spent at Nichols Park.
Oldenettal says the city will eventually need to replace that equipment.
She sees the grant as a way to reduce the city’s costs for playground replacement.
The council will seek a grant through the state’s open space lands acquisition and development grant, or OSLAD.
But, the catch is, the grant needs to be submitted quickly.
Oldenettal says the grant application is due by the end of August.
Jacksonville applied for an OSLAD grant a year ago to build pickleball courts. But, Oldenettal says the proposal didn’t fit well with the intent of the OSLAD program.
She thinks this application has the potential of meeting those guidelines this year.
The grant can be as much as $600-thousand, which the city must match.