City Receives Crowdfunding Grant to Renovate Matter Park’s Pond and Streams Share

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The City of Mar­i­on plans to ren­o­vate the fish­ing pond and inflow­ing streams at Mat­ter Park in the summer/​fall uti­liz­ing a crowd­fund­ing grant. The City was award­ed a $20,000 match­ing grant through the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Grant Coun­ty requir­ing the City to raise a remain­ing $20,000 via crowdfunding.

May­or Jess Alum­baugh stat­ed, ​“The City is grate­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ty and for the Com­mu­ni­ty Foundation’s con­tin­ued sup­port of our parks. Con­tribut­ing to the crowd­fund­ing grant is a won­der­ful way for the com­mu­ni­ty to invest in our beau­ti­ful Mat­ter Park.”

The City com­mit­ted funds for the project, and addi­tion­al grant pro­pos­als were submitted.

The City plans to work with Ecosys­tems Con­nec­tions Insti­tute, LLC, to restore the pond and improve the beau­ty of the park through a two-phase, mul­ti-task approach. The first phase will include ren­o­va­tion of the pond and two inflow streams. The pond banks will be restruc­tured to reduce ero­sion and pro­vide eas­i­er access to the water. Glacial stone and native veg­e­ta­tion will be installed to rein­force the banks, add nat­ur­al beau­ty, and pro­vide wildlife habi­tat. Fish nest­ing struc­tures will be installed in the pond, and a vari­ety of native fish will be restocked to improve recre­ation­al fish­ing. The sec­ond phase will involve the out­flow stream from the pond to the Mis­sissinewa Riv­er, and even­tu­al­ly glacial stone and native veg­e­ta­tion. The stream had been cleared of sed­i­ment in 2019 to flow freely to the riv­er with sup­port of local cit­i­zens such as Jim Gart­land and Cindy and Court­ney Gorman.

Project leader, Taylere McCoy, expressed, ​“We are excit­ed for the oppor­tu­ni­ties the project will yield for the com­mu­ni­ty, and for the part­ner­ships cre­at­ed through it. It will improve aes­thet­ics and add new oppor­tu­ni­ties for Mat­ter Park vis­i­tors in order to reen­er­gize a pop­u­lar and safe spot for anglers of all ages. The pond and its streams will invite all to explore nature, dis­cov­er wildlife, take pic­tures, or just relax. Impor­tant­ly, water qual­i­ty of the pond will be improved to pre­vent con­t­a­m­i­nants into the Mis­sissinewa River.”

McCoy may be reached via email at tmccoy@​cityofmarion.​in.​gov or 765.668.4468.

The dead­line to donate toward the match­ing $20,000 is July 11^th, 2022.