A $100,000 state grant will help Clay County build a safer walkway between Hermitage Springs School and the park.
The grant is part of the state’s Rural Health Transformation Program. Clay County Chamber of Commerce Director Doug Young said the initiative will start the planning process.
“For the kids to be able to get from the school to the park, they have to walk down a very busy highway, a dangerous situation,” Young said. “So we applied for a planning grant to be able the kids to go right from the campus right to the park.”
Young said the current planning grant includes the design of the bridge and the development of safety crosswalks. Once the design phase is finished, the county intends to apply for a construction grant to fund the actual building of the structure across the creek.
“And once we get the planning done, then we’ll be applying for a grant to put a bridge across that creek that will allow the kids to have access to the park,” Young said. “And there’s also a church across the river, across the creek there, and this will allow the people in the church to be able to access the park as well.”
Young said the bridge project follows a $250,000 renovation completed two years ago that updated the park’s restrooms, pavilion, and playground equipment.
“We’d like to be able to through some way to get a community center on the grounds of that park to be able to provide them with interior space for inclement weather or the wintertime,” Young said. “And so that one’s being used already regularly.”
Young said the county is focusing on park improvements to bolster tourism and provide activities for visitors coming to Dale Hollow Lake. Young said the county recently utilized a $1.7 million grant to renovate and expand the local library and is currently working with an architect on a $700,000 grant for the Clay County Park and Fairgrounds.
“If we attract tourists in, they bring their dollars with them and that allows us to improve our economic conditions,” Young said. “Some of these things will attract tourists, some of them will be more community events, but it’s something to make us give us something to do in our community that won’t cost a lot of money.”
Young said the county expects to receive the designs for the Clay County Park and Fairgrounds project from the architect by the end of the month.
