Reliance Bank is the latest entity to donate toward proposed improvements for Logan Township’s Green­wood Park, helping reduce the amount of township money needed to match a grant the township has obtained for the approximately $375,000 project.

“Very generous,” Super­visors Chairman Jim Patterson said of Reliance’s $5,000 contribution.

The township needs a 50-50 match of $187,000 to put up against an equal amount provided through the Park Rehabilitation and Develop­ment program of the De­partment of Conservation and Natural Resources.

At this point, the township is slated to contribute $24,600 in cash, along with $56,400 in Community De­velopment Block Grant money and $41,600 worth of labor and machinery time, according to a chart provided by Planning Director Cassandra Schmick.

Private in-kind or non-cash contributions already secured include $50,000 from Sheetz Corp., $5,000 from Keller Engineers and $3,000 from S.J. McCloskey.

Other private cash contributions already secured include $1,000 each from Burgmeier’s Hauling and Leonard S. Fiore Inc.

Further private donations would allow the township to place even more cash back into the recreation fund — or else to add improvements, Patterson said.

The proposed improvements include a 9-foot-wide accessible walking path around the Altoona Curve Junior baseball field and the Altoona Soccer Club field, a 5-foot wide, 4,700-foot-long mulch or gravel network of hiking trails in a wooded section of the park, a new bathroom on the south side of the soccer field, benches, trees and other accessibility improvements.

A Little League ballfield has been at the site for many years, Patterson said.

Prior to 1991, there was also a police shooting range, a “burn house” where firefighters practiced their craft and a site where township workers deposited clean “spoils” like tree stumps, Patterson said.

After 1991, the shooting range and burn house area became a compost site for the Intermunicipal Rela­tions Committee, Patterson said.

About 1996, when the Blair County Solid Waste Depart­ment took over composting with a site at the Buckhorn, the township be­gan developing the park in earnest with CDBG mo­ney and a grant from the De­partment of Community and Economic Develop­ment, through the Central Blair Recreation and Park Com­mission, Patterson said.

Among the current amen­ities is a second baseball field, a roller rink and playground equipment, he said.

The park is on a hill off Sixth Avenue, although it’s reached via Sandy Run Road, then Earnhardt Drive, Thunder­bird Drive and Thun­derbird Lane, which are part of the Camelot Woods mobile home development.

Township workers have removed trees in preparation for the proposed im­provements, according to Township Manager Tim Brown.

The township expects to advertise for bids this year, he said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.