The City of Oakland Park will be submitting three (3) grant applications for funding through the newly created Florida Recreational Development Assistance Program (FRDAP) Unique Abilities program. The City will apply for $500,000 for the Grand Plaza at Jaco Pastorius Park. In addition a $500,000 grant request will be made for a new Splash Pad facility at Collins/Wimberley Park. The third application will be for new construction at the Royal Palm Natural Area. The deadline for the application to be submitted to FDEP is August 17th. As part of the application requirements, the City will also be hosting individual “sole purpose meetings” for each of the applications. The details on these meetings will be provided in the City’s website once scheduled.
The 2016 Florida Legislature created this new grant program to fund initiatives for recreation focusing on facilities for people with disabilities. DEP will be required to craft the new program, develop a rule and enact the rule, commence a submission cycle and review applications, all with an impending deadline of December 31, 2016. The new program will fund up to $500,000 in grant funds for these initiatives which can include any recreational facility that enhances access for disabled or unique ability users. The program also allows for eligible costs to be reimbursed from May 2016 through December 2019.