Sen. Judy Schwank announced $183,600 in Greenways, Trails, and Recreation Program grant funding for the city of Reading to assist the Reading Skatepark, located at 601 Canal St., Reading, PA 19602, with installing lighting and shade structures.<\/p>\n
The Greenways, Trails, and Recreation Program was established by Act 13 of 2012, which created the Marcellus Legacy Fund and allocates funds to the Commonwealth Financing Authority for planning, acquisition, development, rehabilitation and repair of greenways, recreational trails, open space, parks and beautification projects.<\/p>\n
Schwank said the award creates new opportunities for the skatepark to host events, attract more visitors to Reading and Berks County, expand hours and improve safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen how well received the skatepark has been since it opened,\u201d Schwank said. \u201cIt creates a sense of community and opportunity for those who use it, and adding lighting opens the door to more events and will help us draw more interest from folks outside of Berks County. I\u2019m excited to bring this funding back to Berks County, and I\u2019m grateful to the City of Reading and the Reading Skatepark Association for their partnership on this application.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Eddie Mor\u00e1n said the award builds on a valued community amenity in the City of Reading.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Reading Skatepark has become an important community space, and this funding will allow it to be used safely for more hours throughout the year,\u201d Mayor Mor\u00e1n said. \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to Sen. Schwank for securing this investment and to the Reading Skatepark Association for their continued partnership as we improve quality-of-life amenities for our residents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reading Skatepark Association President John \u2018JD\u2019 Turner said the funding will significantly expand access to the facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone from the Reading Skatepark Association and the action sports community is very excited about this grant being used toward lighting up our skatepark,\u201d Turner said. \u201cWith the added hours of use, park users will be able to recreate during winter hours when many get off work and it\u2019s dark outside due to daylight saving time, or to get a break from the extreme heat and sun exposure in the warmer seasons. There\u2019s currently no place to skateboard when it gets dark outside in Berks County. This will help all action sports enthusiasts by providing a safely lit area, as well as increase the safety of the Southside neighborhood by being used during the evening hours. Additionally, we can host events with extended timelines, which will only benefit the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Judy Schwank announced $183,600 in Greenways, Trails, and Recreation Program grant funding for the city of Reading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-64939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-reading-city","9":"tag-reading-city-headlines","10":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}