Contact: Todd Cohen, o: 303.226.4530 c: 303-503-9068, tcohen@goco.org, or

                  Laura Cardon, 303-226-4531, lcardon@goco.org

Counties:  Park, Boulder, Weld and Phillips

DENVER – Sometimes a small project can make a major difference.

Great Outdoors Colorado’s “mini grant” program provides funding for projects that cost $60,000 or less but will be a major benefit to a community. The GOCO board of trustees has awarded four such grants totaling $133,000 to help Colorado towns build amenities for senior and youth, improve ball fields and to acquire private property being used by the public to access a nearby trail system.

Grant details:

PARK COUNTY: Acquisition to provide trail access

The Town of Alma will receive $28,000 to help it acquire a 2.8-acre parcel within the Buckskin Creek corridor. The site is presently used illegally by hikers and bikers to gain access to a nearby trail system. The town plans to later add a two-mile trail, picnic benches and tables and interpretative signage to the site.

BOULDER COUNTY: School to create nature-based playground

The City of Louisville, in partnership with Louisville Elementary School, will receive $45,000 to help it replace an existing kindergarten playground with a nature-based play area that is fully accessible.

WELD COUNTY: Musical project on tap in Milliken

The Town of Milliken will receive $36,000 to help it improve its Avilia Park by adding a shuffleboard court for the adjacent senior community center, and musical play structures for kids , who frequently play in the parking lot.

PHILLIPS COUNTY: Project will allow players back in the dugout

The City of Holyoke will receive $23,500 to help it improve its aging ball fields. The funds will go toward replacing sunken dugouts, built in 1954, which are nearly collapse. Players now generally use spectator benches instead of the dugouts. The city also will add a biking and pedestrian trail that will connect to an existing trail, as well as awnings for the highly-used baseball facility.

Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) invests a portion of Colorado Lottery proceeds to help preserve and enhance the state’s parks, trails, wildlife, rivers and open spaces. GOCO’s independent board awards competitive grants to local governments and land trusts, and makes investments through Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Created when voters approved a Constitutional Amendment in 1992, GOCO has since funded more than 4,500 projects in urban and rural areas in all 64 counties without any tax dollar support. Visit goco.org for more information.

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