BRENHAM FAMILY PARK PROJECT RECOMMENDED FOR STATE GRANT FUNDING

  

Construction of the Brenham Family Park is being recommended for $750,000 in state funding from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.

Tuesday, State Senator Lois Kolkhorst and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) announced the City of Brenham’s Family Park grant application is being recommended for the funding at the Commission’s next meeting on August 27^th.  Recommended projects must receive final approval from the Commission prior to entering into a grant agreement.

The state grant would be used by the city during the construction of the park, with project details including trails and landscaping, picnic facilities, parking lots and restrooms, as well as the development of a lake and necessary roads.

Kolkhorst thanked the TPWD for recommending that this grant application be funded, saying public parks “offer an affordable way for all Texans to enjoy the outdoors”.  She said she is proud to have worked on a bipartisan funding solution because outdoor spaces like the Brenham Family Park are “vital to our families, economy, and way of life”.

The Commission is considering 77 projects for Urban Outdoor, Non-Urban Outdoor, and Small Community Recreation Grants.  The projects are ranked in order based on each grant program’s scoring criteria previously adopted by the Commission.  In the Non-Urban Outdoor category, the Brenham Family Park ranked eighth out of 36 projects with a score of 65 out of 100.

Funding for this grant program comes from a portion of the state sales tax attributable to sporting goods.  In the 86^th legislature, Kolkhorst wrote and passed Senate Joint Resolution 24 and Senate Bill 26 to dedicate all sporting goods sales taxes to every state park and historic site across Texas, as well as local parks.  The legislation passed with unanimous support, and the constitutional amendment put before voters last November passed with 88 percent of the vote.