LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Joseph Bellino on Wednesday congratulated the city of Morenci for being awarded an $863,500 Michigan Spark Grant to reactivate Stephenson Park.
The Morenci park was one of 21 projects recommended by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for the first round of spark grants, totaling $14.2 million.
“Last year, I was proud to support investing part of the state’s historic surplus to help improve people’s access to our outdoors by creating new recreational options and enhancing our park infrastructure,” said Bellino, R-Monroe. “It is great to see Lenawee County included in the first round of spark grants as part of that initiative. This grant will help provide area families with more opportunities to stay healthy and have fun while also helping attract new people and investment.”
Public Act 53 of 2022 invested $4.7 billion in making critical improvements to the state’s infrastructure, including $200 million for local park improvements and $250 million to make infrastructure upgrades at state parks.
A total of $65 million was dedicated for Michigan Spark Grants for creating, renovating or redeveloping public recreation opportunities. The grants range from $100,000 to $1 million and will be distributed in three rounds.
Since there is no 25% match requirement for the spark grants, the DNR considered 462 applications requesting more than $280 million. In comparison, the DNR’s top three recreation grant programs usually get a total of 150 applications seeking between $50 million and $60 million annually.
A complete list of recipients is available at www.michigan.gov/dnr/buy-and-apply/grants/rec/sparkgrants/round-1-awards.
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