YOUR AD HERE »

City officials excited about $150,000 award for Breeze Park improvements

Snow and slush coat playground equipment at Breeze Street Park in Craig on Monday.
Sasha Nelson/staff

Craig residents and their families who frequent Breeze Park may be happy to know the park will get a six-figure facelift this year.

In a recent news release, Great Outdoors Colorado announced its board awarded the city of Craig a $150,000 grant to update Breeze Park, one of the city’s main municipal parks.

“This is the fourth time we have applied to GOCO for a Breeze Park Development Grant,” said Dave Pike, parks and recreation director with the city of Craig. “Since 2011, when the MCSD donated the Breeze Street property to us, we have been applying to Great Outdoor Colorado for some financial assistance. Each time we were unsuccessful, our feedback indicated that we needed to update our parks and recreation master plan. We finished that process last fall and throughout the project we heard from the public that completing Breeze Park was a top priority. With our updated plan in place we applied again last fall and we finally hit the jackpot.”

City officials have been making improvements to the park since at least 2015, but the GOCO grant will offer additional upgrades to the park, including a second construction phase on the park’s 35-year-old irrigation system, a concrete rail compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, new picnic shelters, a new 720-square-foot gazebo, new shade canopies, trash receptacles, park benches, and picnic tables.

“This phase of development will include a picnic shelter large enough to accommodate family gatherings, weddings or class reunions,” Pike said in an email. “Also there will be several smaller shade shelters, a walking path, a new irrigation system, and a poured-in-place safety surface throughout the playground system. In addition, we will be doing some more landscaping and installing some permanent corn hole boards.”

Great Outdoors Colorado noted in the release that the park sees about 5,300 visitors per year, many of whom live within walking distance for events like weddings, festivals, farmers markets, movies in the park, the Arbor Day Tree Celebration, and other programs.

“To date, GOCO has invested $8.8 million in projects in Moffat County and has conserved more than 37,400 acres of land there,” the news release said. “GOCO funding has supported the Moffat County Loudy-Simpson Soccer Field expansion, Elkhead Reservoir Recreation Facility, Dinosaur Sports Field and Ice Rink, Ridgeview Park playground, and Moffat County Fairgrounds, among various other projects.”

Completion of the Breeze Park upgrades are expected to be completed late this summer or early fall, according to Pike, who will continue to work towards providing a better quality of life for Craig residents.

“It seems like every time we talk about economic diversification recreation, trails and improved river access is always in the mix,” Pike said. “I think it is very important to continue improving our recreation amenities every chance we get. If we want to make Craig an attractive place to live and raise families we need to offer exceptional recreation opportunities.”

 


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Craig and Moffat County make the Craig Press’ work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.