Town of Man secures $200k federal grant for Riverfront Park splashpad project

Installation is already underway for some of the simpler parts of the project, including the recently installed playground equipment pictured above.

Robert Fields | WVOW News

MAN, WV Town of Man Mayor John Fekete announced Monday that the town has received a $200,000 grant through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund for development of a recreational park on the river’s edge.

The three-acre stretch of property might not be much to look at at this stage in the project, but the Guyandotte Riverfront Park in Man – on paper – is well on its way to being the town’s next big staple. Following Monday’s meeting, WVOW News toured the park property with Mayor Fekete and he spoke on the process of getting the project off the ground, including the lengthy first step of getting the idea drafted into a plan that could help secure the proper financial backing.

Pictured above is the preliminary master plan for the Guyandotte Riverfront Park - Man, West Virginia, submitted to the town by the Charleston-based civil engineering firm Thrasher.

“You know, there’s always hurdles when you’re out looking for funding, because there’s other people out looking for funding also, so it’s been a journey,” he said in an interview with WVOW News.

“We started with a vision. About a year ago, we hired an engineer to put a master plan together while utilizing the river and taking advantage of these three acres of property."

"And once we got a plan and could see it on paper, then we started making decisions – ‘what can we do now,'" Fekete explained.

The $200,000 Land and Water Conservation grant marks a huge milestone for the project. That funding will go toward the installation of a recreational splash pad for the public to enjoy. Last year, the Logan County Commission approved a 50-percent contribution to help the Town of Man meet a required funding match for the grant application.

Pictured above is the recently paved courtyard where the town plans to have its new basketball and pickleball courts. The splash pad will be installed just to the right of this picture.

“The County Commission stepped up once again and gave us $100,000 toward it. The town took $100,000 out of its reserves to put toward that project, so that project will start hopefully this winter with the design and maybe the bidding and getting all that out,” he said.

“Cross your fingers. We may be possibly using the splash pad next summer sometime.”

In total, the town now has $400,000 in funding ready to invest into the splash pad project. The next steps, according to Fekete, will be starting to look for funding for the park’s stage and sidewalks.

Considering the substantial sums of money that have been dedicated to the Guyandotte Riverfront Park, it came as no surprise to town officials that the books show an overall deficit so far for the current fiscal year. However, what is a pleasant surprise – at least to town accountant Jeff Vallet – is that the actual numbers are far less into the negative than the start-of-year projections suggested. Vallet gave his financial report to council members Monday evening.

The Man Town Council

“Even with us being showing a quote-unquote ‘deficit’ for the year-to-date, we budgeted a $200,000 deficit,” said Vallet, “because we knew we were going to spend some money on the park, we knew that we were going to spend some money that we had set aside, and this month, we actually pulled some money out of those accounts to make some of our first initial payments to engineers as we’re very well aware of.”

“So, showing a $20,000 deficit is not bad, considering we’ve spent probably spent 50 Grand above what we normally spend for things that we don’t usually do. So it’s a good situation, we still have sufficient monies in our account. You want to have at least three months of reserve; we have more than that,” he said.

The installation of a recreational park may be for the residents of the town, but it also coincides with a broader initiative across southern West Virginia to boost the tourism industry. Mayor Fekete says the industry is an increasingly crucial part of economic development in the coalfields and he believes his town needs to take advantage of that trend.

“Tourism is something that we definitely want to embrace. Hatfield-McCoy sold 95,000 trail passes last year and 80 percent of those were out-of-state residents, so that’s people from out of state coming into our communities and spending money. You know, this park’s going to be for our community and our kids, but we’re also going to share it with the visitors that come in. We’re seeing families. We’re seeing mom, dad and the two kids. Well, the dad may want to ride three days and, on the third day, the kids say ‘I don’t wanna ride anymore,’ and come over here and play in the splash pad, which means they’re spending more money here in our community. So, tourism’s definitely an important part of what we have here in southern West Virginia and we definitely support it and embrace it.”

Photos | Robert Fields, Town of Man