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# New grant opportunity with $10M in play could reshape Bloomington parks capital plan
- URL: https://bsquarebulletin.com/new-grant-opportunity-with-10m-in-play-could-reshape-bloomington-parks-capital-plan/
- Published: 2026-09-29T09:52:02.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-29T09:52:02.000Z
- Description: Bloomington parks is reworking its capital plan after a Lilly-backed grant created the possibility of up to $10 million more for projects. Priorities include pools, ice, pickleball, baseball, trails and a possible sale of the department’s South Walnut Street property.
- Author: Dave Askins
- Tags: Local Government

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/20/6f/206f9007-c0a7-47d4-b87b-686c21961f22/content/images/2026/09/2026-09-29-PXL_20260928_213321082-1.jpg)

Bloomington parks and recreation director Tim Street presents the funding options to the board of park commissioners at their special meeting held at the Switchyard Park pavilion on Monday: $7.1 million in general obligation bonds; a $200,000 planning grant; and a $10-million grant through the Lilly-backed Indiana Community Parks Initiative. (Dave Askins, Sept. 28, 2026)

Bloomington’s parks department had been building a [capital investment plan](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/BPRD-Investment-Priorities-Plan-2026.pdf) based on roughly $7 million in borrowing. Then, just as staff were finishing the draft, a new statewide parks grant opportunity backed by Lilly Endowment Inc. changed the math.

At a special meeting held on Monday (Sept. 28) at Switchyard Park, parks director Tim Street told the board of park commissioners that Bloomington is among the Indiana communities invited to participate in the Community Parks Initiative. The city can apply for up to $200,000 for planning, which would make it eligible to compete for an implementation grant of up to $10 million. Nearly $400 million in Lilly Endowment funding has been allocated statewide for the initiative, Street said.

Added to the roughly $7 million general obligation bond that parks staff had been considering for 2027, that puts in play potentially as much as $17 million. But in his remarks on Monday, Street cautioned that the city is not proposing to spend $17 million on the parks capital program. 

But it’s clear the grant has changed the department’s approach. Staff will now determine which projects are good candidates for the grant, which can be covered through regular capital spending or other revenue, and how much still needs to be borrowed. Street called the draft investment plan a “jumping-off point” for a conversation. 

The $200,000 planning-grant application is due at the end of October. Street said staff expects to update the parks board at its October meeting. The implementation grant would come later in the process. No action on the capital plan was taken Monday.

The draft is intended as a supplement to the recently adopted [2026–2030 parks master plan](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/City-of-Bloomington-IN-Parks-and-Recreation-Department-Master-Plan-2026%5F2030.pdf ), which made “invest in what we have” one of its central priorities. Its 15 recommendations are neither ranked nor exhaustive. 

Street called the Community Parks Initiative “a game-changing opportunity.” 

### 349 S. Walnut

One of the more [significant recommendations](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/BPRD-Investment-Priorities-Plan-2026.pdf#page=5) in the capital plan does not involve a park at all. Bloomington’s parks and recreation department could sell its building at 349 S. Walnut St., which is currently leased to The Project School. 

Two appraisals put the property’s value at around $2.7 million. The school currently pays $4.50 per square foot, compared with an estimated low-end market rent of $9\. If parks and recreation keeps the building, the plan recommends raising the rent to at least the low end of the market when the current lease expires in 2029\. Sale proceeds or increased rent would go into the parks and recreation non-reverting fund for capital improvements. 

Street said Monday that the question is whether the parks department needs to continue to own the downtown property when converting that asset to cash could help address needs elsewhere. He said Project School leadership has already been told that the department is considering the issue. 

The property was acquired by the parks and recreation department in 1979 as part of a land swap for the property at 115 East 6th Street, which at the time housed the city’s Center for Older Americans. The negotiations on the deal were [reported by the Herald Times](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/OCR-News%5FArticle%5F%5FHerald-Times%5FBloomington%5FIN%5Fpublished%5Fas%5FThe%5FHerald-Telephone%5F%5F%5FSeptember%5F17%5F1979%5F%5Fp6.pdf) in September 1979\. Based on the [appropriation ordinance](https://bloomdocs.org/wp-content/uploads/simple-file-list/1979-11-07-Owl-Sleep-Center-Swap-Parks-and-rec-App%5FOrd%5F79-14.pdf) approved at the time by the city council, it looks like the city acquired the property on South Walnut in exchange for the 115 East 6th Street property plus $70,000\. 

### Advocacy: Pickleball, turf baseball, ice arena

Several of the other recommendations in the capital plan drew organized contingents to Monday’s meeting.

Six speakers advocated for pickleball. The plan calls for spending about $50,000 to convert two tennis courts at RCA Community Park into six pickleball courts. Speakers generally welcomed that proposal, but said it falls short of current and anticipated demand. They described crowded courts and waits to play, urged the city to develop a longer-range pickleball plan and suggested adding courts elsewhere without necessarily converting additional tennis courts. Several also urged the parks department to establish clearer rotation rules and signage when courts are crowded. 

Eight speakers advocated for the proposed turf investment at Winslow Sports Park. The plan calls for turf infields on four junior baseball diamonds, and LED lighting. That recommendation also calls for coordination with city utilities on stormwater improvements, at an estimated cost of at least $2.5 million. In their support of investing in turf baseball fields, speakers pointed to rainouts, field-maintenance demands and opportunities to attract tournaments and their associated visitor spending.

The same recommendation would leave two Bryan Park diamonds and one Butler Park diamond as grass multipurpose fields and phase out the Lower Cascades ballfields because of declining use and floodplain constraints. 

Three speakers focused directly on preserving or improving the ice operation at Frank Southern Ice Arena. They cited heavy demand for ice time, the limitations of Bloomington’s seasonal one-sheet operation and the travel required for hockey and figure skaters looking for additional ice time.

Two bike polo players also spoke, making five commenters whose remarks touched on recreational uses tied to the arena or related facilities. During the off-season without ice, Frank Southern was used earlier this year for a [two-day bike polo tournament](https://bsquarebulletin.com/16-teams-converge-for-bike-polo-in-bloomington-at-hoosier-tenderloin-classic-tournament/). Bike polo speakers also supported the proposed $170,000 multi-use games area at Building Trades Park.

Frank Southern presents one of the plan’s biggest financial decisions. Parks proposes spending $125,000 now on building repairs while continuing to study longer-term choices. The two basic longer term alternatives are: spend around $2 million for an indirect ammonia refrigeration system; or spend about $4 million for a more complete replacement. A third option, which sounds unlikely, would be to spend more than $15 million for a new arena. The plan calls for a decision by the end of 2028.

### Other recommendations, next steps

Other major recommendations in the plan include $5 million to $9 million for Bryan Park Pool, including bathhouse modernization, accessibility and mechanical improvements. Mills Pool would receive only sustaining repairs rather than an equivalent renovation. The plan says that the age and lower use of the Mills Pool could eventually lead to its closure. 

The plan also calls for $350,000 to $400,000 for an inclusive playground at Olcott Park. Trail and asphalt repairs are estimated at $500,000 to $1 million. Banneker Community Center appears in the plan for $200,000 to $250,000 for an elevator and other work. A future $2 million to $3 million revenue bond might be used to replace the 1981 irrigation system at Cascades Golf Course. Work on the Griffy Lake North Shore trail is estimated at $200,000 to $300,000\. 

Beyond those one-time projects, the parks department is proposing to increase the share of its general fund devoted to routine capital investment. The goal is to increase capital spending to at least 4% in 2028, 5% in 2029 and 6% in 2030\. Over the previous decade, capital spending averaged only about 2.2% of general-fund expenditures, according to Street.

Monday’s big turnout from the public prompted a caution from park commissioner Ellen Rodkey. She noted that most of the people who showed up to speak at the meeting represented organized constituencies for baseball, pickleball and ice sports. Trail users, pool users and other residents do not necessarily have clubs that can mobilize people to attend a meeting, Rodkey pointed out.

Street agreed that public-comment turnout could not by itself determine priorities. He pointed to the statistically valid survey conducted for the master plan and other usage, condition and financial data that staff will weigh alongside comments from organized groups. Trails, for example, ranked first in the community survey even though trail users did not turn out Monday as an organized bloc. An [online form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSexQFvq2i3YorD-WQuvsbgG7cy5af8p6VzkiYFpUg3Kd-qfcg/viewform) is still open for residents to submit comments on the parks master plan.

Balancing the interests of the general public and various organized interest groups would be somewhat easier with the possibility of more money from the Lilly-backed Community Parks Initiative. But even if Bloomington eventually secured the full $10 million implementation grant, Street told the board, the needs identified across the parks system would use up the money quickly.