Hub City’s Cypress Grove Nature Park receives $392,000 grant
JACKSON, Tenn. — City of Jackson’s Cypress Grove Nature Park was selected to receive a grant.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Office of Outdoor Recreation granted $2.6 million to enhance local parks with one of the recipients being Jackson’s own, Cypress Grove Nature Park.
“Cypress Grove was awarded $392,000 thanks to the Office of Outdoor Recreation grant. This will help fund improvements such as ADA parking and lot improvements,” said Christi David, park operations manager.
Jackson Parks and Rec said they were notified this week that they would receive the grant. They were the only ones to receive the funding in the west.
“There’s a section of the boardwalk here at Cypress that’s been closed for some time. We are going to use that funding to rebuild that area of the boardwalk. This will be our phase 1 and then from there, every year that the grants are available, we’ll start applying for more funding to eventually do the entire boardwalk. The recreational trails program is designed to match local investments while making sure that communities expand and upgrade their infrastructures effectively,” said David.
Since this is an 80/20 grant, they had to provide a 20% match. The city has already agreed to cover that match.
“We hope to be under contract by spring of 2025 and then ideally begin work sometime around summer or fall of next year,” said David.
According to David, the plan is to bring the park back to its shining jewel that it once was. So far, they have received $1.9 million in funding over the last 18 to 20 months.
“I love Jackson. I was born and raised here, so the opportunity to give back and bring stuff back to Jackson is just a blessing. It will not affect any of the park during that time. As we move forward and we start working on the main areas of the boardwalk, we will face some closures and things,” said David.
Jackson Parks and Rec said they expect to do community outreach when phase 1 of the boardwalk begins.
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