Posted Friday, May 6, 2022.

HUNTINGTON – The City of Huntington will receive a $50,000 grant to assist with the rehabilitation of the stone water race in Memorial Park.

The stone race is part of the city’s storm water drainage system, connecting Memorial Park’s two ponds with the Little River. It was first built in 1937 under the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration.

The channel’s walls run about 490 linear feet. They are approximately 16 inches thick and range from 3 to 5 feet high, while the channel ranges from 8 to 12 feet wide. The race is in poor condition, with several places that have collapsed due to hydraulic forces, freeze-thaw cycles, undercutting and vegetation growth.

In 2020, the city used a $20,000 grant award to hire Fort Wayne-based Engineering Resources to design the rehabilitation project. These approved engineering plans will guide repointing sections that retain structural integrity, reconstructing failed sections with salvaged stone, and replacing the downstream end’s concrete lining with native glacial stone.

The tentative award through the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Historic Preservation & Archaeology was announced Friday. Funding will come from the U.S. National Park Service, a unit of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which distributes federal funds to the states through its Historic Preservation Fund Program.

Community Development & Redevelopment Director Bryn Keplinger said the city expects to bid out the project later this year, with construction likely to take place in 2023.

Updated July 6, 2022.

The Community Development office received a subgrant award letter from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources on Tuesday, July 5, notifying the City that the allocation has been increased to $60,000 in federal matching grant funds.