Renovate your neighborhood park, ballfields through King County youth sports facility grants

Help is available for community and youth organizations that are interested in developing or renovating neighborhood youth sports facilities through a matching grant program from King County.

The Youth Sports Facility Grants Program (YSFG), which is administered by King County Parks and Recreation, is accepting applications from qualified groups that partner with a public agency, such as a school district or city parks department, to develop or renovate sports facilities.

Past grants have been awarded for athletic fields, skate parks, playgrounds, sport courts and rowing facilities, among others. Grant requests range from $5,000 to $75,000. Although the program budget will not be set until October, program managers anticipate awarding about $700,000 in grants in 2008.

The program has awarded more than $8 million in grants and contributed to nearly 230 new or renovated athletic facilities since 1993.

To qualify for a grant, applicants must meet a one-to-two matching requirement.

The YSFG Program is funded and sustained through a quarter of 1 percent of car rental taxes. The program will begin receiving $100,000 annually from the YSFG endowment, which was established with the sale of a county building.

Applications are being accepted until June 20, with letters of intent due May 2. Application and letter of intent forms are available at http://www.metrokc.gov/parks/ysports/ysports.htm. More information is available by contacting Butch Lovelace, program manager, at 206-263-6267, or at butch.lovelace@kingcounty.gov.