Jefferson Parks and Recreation recently received two grants to help improve a couple of city parks.

JPRD Director Denny Hammen tells Raccoon Valley Radio they received a $40,000 Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation grant, which will be used to replace the playground equipment in Russell Park. He says the park’s playground equipment is over 20 years old and needs to be replaced. Hammen adds, the total cost of that project is over $62,000, with the remaining funds to come from the city.

JPRD received another grant from the Greene County Community Foundation for $18,295 to help with the cost of purchasing adult fitness stations along the newly surfaced walking trail at Daubendiek Park.

“Where they can do pull ups, or situps, or there’s a balance beam. So just lots of additional ways to enhance your fitness while you’re doing your walk at Daubendiek (Park). So we’ve kind of geared this park more towards adult usage for the community. Jefferson is known for all of its parks, but we thought let’s go ahead and see if we can’t make this one (Daubendiek Park) more for what the adults would enjoy.”   

Hammen points out the reason this project started was with a $20,000 gift from Bill Daubendiek to enhance the walking trail at the park.