CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The city of Cleveland got a $500,000 Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation parks and recreation grant for the development of a new park, dubbed Candies Creek Park, along the winding creek on the west side of the city.
“It’s very exciting news for Cleveland because we don’t have a playground in the northwest section of the city,” said Cleveland Parks and Recreation Director Patti Petitt, who wrote the grant application. “That was what we stressed is that we need a playground in each district of the city. It’s a big win for us.”
The grant requires a 50% match from the city, according to officials.
The site for the park hasn’t been acquired yet but it will be somewhere along Candies Creek in the area of State Highway 60, Petitt said.
The grant and the city’s matching funds cannot be used to purchase any property on the former Rolling Hills golf course that borders parts of Candies Creek because it was previously developed for public recreation, she said. The city purchased about 30 acres of the property back in 2010 to use about 20 acres to mitigate wetlands impacted by the construction of the city’s then-new airport in the Tasso community.