5:50 p.m. Thursday, February 10, 2022
Several parks in the northwest suburbs will receive significant upgrades thanks to a new round of Hennepin County Youth Sports Grants awarded this week.
One park that will benefit from this latest round of funding is Fair School Park in Crystal, which is getting a new soccer field.
“We’re excited about the Fair School Park project because soccer is one of those sports that we don’t have enough space for,” said John Elholm, Crystal Park and Recreation Manager. “The school wants to offer a competitive after-school soccer program and they don’t really have a good field. Also, during the summer, we use a lot of soccer fields and we don’t really have enough fields to meet the demand.
Hennepin County is providing an $80,000 youth athletic grant to help fund the new football field at Fair School Park. The Town of Crystal will inject an additional $30,000.
Construction will begin this summer and we hope children will be able to start using the new land in 2023.
A design rendering of the Fair School Park football ground in Crystal.
The Hennepin County Youth Sports Grant program has been in place since 2009, with money coming from the sales tax that paid for the Minnesota Twins stadium. Since the youth sports grant program began, Hennepin County has awarded more than $29 million to help fund facilities, playgrounds and equipment needs.
“The economic impact of this program has really created huge breakthroughs,” said Thomas Rupp, Hennepin County Youth Activities Program Manager. “It’s helped health in all of our communities, and it’s created real opportunities to reduce disparities, to help small organizations.”
Other local grant recipients
Meanwhile, Robbinsdale received $22,500 to make improvements to the Lee Park building and make it more accessible to the ADA. The city also received another grant to fund children’s equipment from the Armstrong Fast Pitch Softball Association.
The New Hope Ice Arena received funds to improve the safety and training of participants in its dance program.
The Town of Crystal also received another grant to help pay for soccer goals and nets at Welcome Park.
Crystal | Robbinsdale
