In September the Tennessee Department of Health announced the first recipients of Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP) Grants, awarding 53 projects across Tennessee that are devoted to initiatives of the Healthy Active Rural Tennessee (HART) priority: improving nutrition, physical fitness, and community social supports and programs. Funding for the RHTP grants comes from over $206 million awarded to Tennessee from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last year through the federal RHTP grant program. Local recipients of the initial HART grant funding include the Appalachian Conservation Institute in Marion County for “Trail Navigation and Interpretation Improvements”, the City of Manchester in Coffee County for a “Systemwide Parks and Recreation Masterplan,” and in Grundy County the City of Altamont, the Town of Tracy City, and the South Cumberland Community Fund have all been awarded funding for park-planning, trailimproving, and healthy lifestyle projects.

At the Altamont City GCH – $1.00

Council meeting on Tuesday, October 6th, Paul McKee, current director of the South Cumberland Community Fund, ap- proached the council to present the approval by the state of Tennessee for the HART project for the City of Altamont. McKee, having applied his expertise in grant writing to every municipality on the mountain and far beyond, mentioned his time working with the City of Altamont development district and remarked, “I’m always thinking about Altamont.” McKee would be working closely with Altamont City recorder Wendy Bess to administrate the grant.

The project would design a masterplan for Altamont’s park system including Altamont City Park, Jay Lake Park, and Firescald Park, allowing for planning and demonstration activities that would research and test out ideas to develop each space to its full potential to be improved for public use. For example, a goal was named for Firescald Park on Northcutt’s Cove Road to clean up the land and install picnic tables and a grill, a light post and playground equipment. The council asked if Ricky Sons Park could be included in the planning grant, and McKee responded that the grant can possibly be amended to include additional recreation space to the park masterplan.

The budget for spending on the project is separated into two categories: professional consultant fees and capital purchases. The consulting piece of the project includes community survey to gather data for best use of the park space. Altamont mayor Jana Barret commented, “We hear people every day, so this person could go and glean all that information and put it into a report.” The other area of consultation would be to hire an architect to help map out the plans. Funds used for capital purchases for the project are investments in the demonstration category rather than implementation. For example, if you purchase a picnic table and observe that it is frequently used, you may include in the masterplan implementation to purchase and install a larger section picnic tables. Another example would be to take the first steps to clear a walking path and if it becomes evident that the path will be well-utilized, plan on adding gravel or paving to the walking path.

Barret raised the question, “Is there another grant coming after this where we’d be able to take what we learned from this grant and put feet on it?”

McKee responded, “If a city or a county has gone through the effort of a planning grant, it makes it more likely you will get an implementation grant… so looking at those three parks, you could talk to the community, schools, healthcare stakeholders, organizations, anyone using the park old or young, community meetings, and then get that information into a document that’s solid, a nice thick activity plan…Any grant you do in the next five years, you would attach this to it.”

The project budget also includes contributions and in-kind support from the City of Altamont to show that the community has invested good faith, effort, and capital in the project. It was determined that recent purchases of tables and benches, land purchases, upkeep, and volunteer hours (which are valued at $31.42 per hour in the state of Tennessee) satisfy the requirement of $20,000 of in-kind support. Barrett proclaimed, “We spend money on our parks like crazy.”

Alderman Linda Roberts declared, “It’s a no-brainer if we’re gonna spend that money anyway.”

“Goodness, yeah,” agreed Barrett. They conferred that next year’s budget would be amended to put money aside to cover the grant expenses to be reimbursed. Barret said about the HART grant, “I’ve read through this about four times, and itls like reading the Bible, the more you read it, it gets clearer and clearer. Alderman Roberts made the motion to accept the grant and it was passed quickly and unanimously.