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Freedom Township wins $85,000 state grant for community park playground

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Freedom Township will receive $85,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) to continue building out its community park, the township’s first. The grant comes from DCNR’s Community Conservation Partnerships Program, known as C2P2, and was announced Oct. 7 as part of an $81 million statewide round.

The park sits at the township’s municipal complex at 2184 Pumping Station Road near Fairfield, alongside the municipal building and public works facility. It opened in 2021 and is open from dawn to dusk year-round for passive recreation, according to the township.

The completed first phase added an ADA-accessible 24-by-36-foot picnic pavilion, six parking spaces including one accessible space, a rain garden, a barbecue grill, and cornhole and horseshoe pits. That phase cost $111,425, covered by a $70,000 DCNR small community grant, a $25,000 Adams County Parks, Recreation and Green Space grant, a $5,000 placemaking grant from the National Association of Realtors and the Realtors Association of York and Adams Counties, and donated materials, labor and gifts from local businesses and families.

The second phase, which the new state grant supports, is a tot-lot playground. The township’s website projects completion by August 2028 and estimates the phase’s cost at about $154,155.

In addition to the DCNR award, the township has applied for $50,000 from Adams County’s Parks, Recreation and Green Space grant program, an application the township lists as pending. The remaining roughly $19,155 is to come from park development impact fees and donations from local businesses, organizations and residents.

Two more phases are planned. A youth playground is projected for August 2030, followed by a paved, 5-foot-wide, ADA-compliant quarter-mile trail loop with three benches and stormwater management areas, projected for August 2032. Funding for those phases has not yet been identified, according to the township.

The work follows the township’s 2018 Recreation Plan, which serves as official township policy for parks and recreation and includes an inventory of local resources, needs and goals.

Statewide, the latest C2P2 round will support 306 recreation and conservation projects in 60 counties, according to the governor’s office. The money, drawn largely from the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund and the Environmental Stewardship Fund, will go toward improving parks and playgrounds, building and repairing trails, conserving open space and restoring rivers and watersheds.

“When we support outdoor spaces close to home, we strengthen the fabric of our communities,” DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn said in announcing the grants. Gov. Josh Shapiro said the investments help communities improve their parks and build new trails.

Residents can rent the park’s pavilion through an application posted on the township’s website.

Sources: Freedom Twp. receives $85,000 state grant · Freedom Township: Community Park · Office of the Governor: Gov. Shapiro and DCNR invest to improve PA trails, parks and public lands

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