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N. Carolina announces funding to make parks more accessible

North Carolina has awarded almost $10 million in grants to benefit park projects across the state. 

State officials say the goal in awarding the funding is to improve recreation access for children and veterans living with disabilities.

The 2021 state budget included nearly $10 million in matching grants for local governments to strengthen park accessibility. The awards were announced in early March. The grants will be administered by the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.

CanoPLAY Treescape in Davie County is among the recipients in the Piedmont. Crater Park in Elkin will be enhanced to promote usage by those with limited mobility.

Improvements are also slated for recreation areas in Jamestown and Lexington.

In Watauga County, a grant has been awarded for Phase 1 of a project at Howard Knob County Park in Boone.

In announcing the grant awards, Governor Roy Cooper released a statement saying that the focus on accessibility highlights a commitment to “investing in projects that reflect the needs and abilities of all our residents and visitors.”

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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