Title
Colorado Lottery Starburst Award Presentation
Presenter:
Karen Palus, Director - Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services
Colin Waters, Community Relations Specialist - Colorado State Lottery
Body
Summary:
Colorado Springs is being presented with a Starburst Award from the Colorado State Lottery for the Environmental Playground at America the Beautiful Park. Colorado Lottery selected 22 projects that emerged with inventiveness and inspiration for its 2016 Starburst Award recipients. The Starburst Awards recognize excellence in the use of Lottery funds for community and conservation projects. Winners are chosen based on the creativity of the project, the economic and social impact on the community, and if the project achieved its goal.
Previous Council Action:
N/A
Background:
The America the Beautiful Park master plan originally contemplated the development of an environmental playground and sought to enhance existing riparian habitat and create wetland areas through removal of an existing berm to provide direct creek access by lowering the park to creek level. Additional components of the project included trail installation, natural play elements, and environmental education signage.
The project achieved several goals:
? Created creek access in an urban park by removing an existing berm
? Created a trail to the creek access area
? Constructed an environmental playground
? Improved landscaping elements to include native seed and drip irrigation
Lottery funding for the project came through a Great Outdoors Colorado grant, which provided $240,000 in support of the project. The funding provided by GOCO supported site-work, playground elements, the creation of creek access to the Fountain Creek Watershed and vegetation at the site. The GOCO award was pivotal to the project and allowed the department to move forward with creating its first creekside access interpretive area and environmental playground. This item supp...
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