City to receive grants for park
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on April 24, 2013 1:46 PM
The Goldsboro Parks and Recreation Department has announced that the city has been awarded three community transformation grants in the amount of $40,000 through the Affordable Care Act.
Two of the grants were for $15,000 and a third was for $10,000.
One of the $15,000 grants will go to developing a master plan to direct the use of Mina Weil Park.
The master plans involve hiring consultants in the area of park development to look at the space and make recommendations for how it can best be used.
"You don't want to put a 3-acre baseball field on a 3.1 acre park," said Scott Barnard, Parks and Recreation director. "You wouldn't have the parking you need."
Barnard said that Mina Weil Park is an obvious choice to master plan because it is the future site of the new W.A. Foster Recreation Center.
The second $15,000 grant would go to purchasing signs for four of Goldsboro's 11 parks.
The four parks are, Mina Weil Park, North End Park, Fairview Park, and H.V. Brown Park.
The signs would be placed in areas which lead people to the parks. They would be similar to the sign on Ash Street by Stoney Creek Park.
The $10,000 grant will go to purchasing a portable sound system, portable cooking area and bus advertising for the Farmer's Market.
The portable cooking area would be for special events at the market to teach people how to prepare foods they are unfamiliar with.
"One vegetable I recently became aware of is bok choy," Barnard said. "Most of the time if your mom didn't cook it, you don't know how to prepare it so this is a fun way to show people."
Bok choy is a Chinese leaf vegetable similar to cabbage and the turnip, often known as Chinese cabbage.
Parks and Recreation officials see the sound system as a way to make announcements heard as the event continuing to grow.
The remaining portion will go to advertisements on city buses to make people aware that the farmer's market is in operation.