KRUGERVILLE — State park officials have awarded a $75,000 matching grant to Krugerville that will help fund the city’s first park.

Krugerville was one of 11 communities — and the only one in Denton County — to share in $750,000 of Small Community Grants program awards.

Audrey Shipley, president of the city’s community development corporation, said that when she presented Krugerville’s request to state park commissioners last week, she played up the rivalry with her brother who served on Aubrey’s parks board, which also has sought state grants.

The Texas Legislature set up the program in 1993 by dedicating a portion of sales tax collected on sporting goods to help cities and counties provide public recreation facilities.

Public entities can compete for grants for parks and recreation facilities in several categories. In all, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission awarded $9 million in competitive grants Thursday. 

Krugerville residents and city leaders have talked about building a park for some time, Shipley said.

“Most people have to go out of town to visit a park,” Shipley said.

Calling it “just a vision at the time,” Mayor Pro Tem Charles Brumley said city leaders wrote the development ordinances to secure public land donations several years ago. Krugerville’s new City Hall sits on one such donation.

Shipley studied the minutes of previous board meetings to learn more about the issue, since previous groups had not reached a consensus about the park. But last summer, when the community development corporation first discussed it, a park vision came together, she said.

The park will be located on the north side of the Sherry Lane South and Fair Meadows Drive intersection, on 3 acres of land donated by a developer who built about 150 homes in the area.

Construction won’t begin until after the final grant agreement with state officials is complete, Mayor Erich Ransleben said.

Ransleben, a pool contractor, drew the park’s design, which includes swings, a playground for toddlers and a playground for older children on the southwest side of the park. The playgrounds and a wheelchair-accessible picnic area will be near a 10-space parking lot. Plans include a 22,200-square-foot multipurpose sports field on the northwest side.

A wooden footbridge over a drainage channel, which bisects the park, will connect the playgrounds with picnic areas to the east. The entire east side is looped by a quarter-mile walkway.

The concrete walkway is important to the city’s seniors, since there aren’t sidewalks in Krugerville, Brumley said.

The $150,000 project doesn’t include construction of a pavilion, but the city has left room for its future development near the playgrounds.

Landscaping will shade the walkway and buffer the park from adjacent homes.

Donations for trees and other landscaping features may help the city with fundraising, City Administrator Susan Bradley said.

Shipley agreed, saying that while she doesn’t have children, her brother does. 

“I’ve already hit up my mom for trees for the grandkids,” Shipley said.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.