Jim Thorpe Borough was recently turned down in its bid for just over $1 million in grant funding for the third phase of a Memorial Park improvement project.

The municipality applied in October for a special fall funding round as part of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources recreation and conservation grants program.

DCNR recently had an investment of $19.4 million in 68 projects across the state, but Jim Thorpe did not make the cut.

The money was planned in large part for two new basketball courts at the park, part of larger scale improvements outlined in a master site plan.

In addition to construction of the courts, lighting was also included, bringing the actual grant application total to $1,082,000.

“We were pretty aggressive in going after this money,” Council President Greg Strubinger said. “It fell a little short. The state told us it was a worthy project, but the funding just wasn’t there for all of the projects they received applications for.”

The fall DCNR grant, for which Jim Thorpe fell short, came from multiple sources, with the largest being the federal American Rescue Plan Act funding made available to through the Outdoor Recreation Program as part of Pennsylvania’s fiscal year 2022-23 budget. The program included a lower match requirement for municipalities with populations under 5,000 people. For these communities, such as Jim Thorpe, the match is 20% of the grant amount with no cap on project size.

Borough Manager Maureen Sterner said council now must decide if it wants to lessen the scope of the third phase of the park project or keep plans the same and go after money in the next grant round.

“If we keep the scope the same, we can apply for a Greenways, Trails, and Recreation Program grant and a Local Share Account grant,” Sterner said. “If successful on one or both of those, we could use that money as our matching funds for next year’s DCNR grant.”

Meanwhile, the borough said it hopes to begin moving dirt soon for the opening phases of the project.

The borough received a combined $287,000 for Phase 1 of the project from three different sources including DCNR and the Department of Community and Economic Development.

Phase 1 includes new playground equipment for children in the 2- to 5-year-old age range.

The municipality received $171,000 for Phase 2 of the project, which includes the construction of pedestrian walkways; installation of play equipment for ages 5-12, a sensory garden, and utilities; Americans with Disabilities Act access, landscaping, project sign and other related site improvements.

“We’re looking forward to getting those phases moving while we continue to work on funding the latter stages of the project,” Strubinger said.