St. Joseph awarded grant for new Corby Pond pavilion, upgrades
By Cameron Montemayor
Corby Pond will see the construction of a new educational pavilion along with several upgrades thanks to a grant awarded from the Missouri Department of Conservation.
A popular fishing and walking destination on the Northwest Parkway, Corby Pond will see a 20-by-40-foot pavilion constructed across the street from the pond as part of the $202,641 grant.
“We’ve always had kind of a hole over there with, with the amenities that we have,” said Chuck Kempf, director of St. Joseph’s Parks Recreation and Civic Facilities. “We really felt like that was a nice amenity to have to enhance the use of the, of the Corby area.”
The pavilion will have a concrete foundation and will be furnished with picnic tables, benches, trash cans and grills.
Construction of the pavilion will be paired with an ongoing project to replace the restroom with a new facility, which will include a 7-by-9-foot storage room as well as a 5-foot-wide sidewalk in front of it, one of several new sidewalks designed to connect the new amenities.
The previous restroom unit was constructed in 1953 and was not ADA-compliant. New restrooms are currently being constructed by Lee Grover Construction Company of St. Joseph.
The project will also see the parking lot by the pond connected to the pavilion and restrooms via a new pedestrian crossing over the St. Joseph Parkway, as well as a new sidewalk connecting the pavilion and the restrooms.
“Last year we actually applied for a similar grant with Missouri Department of Conservation and we weren’t awarded that. They had concerns about the access across the parkway. So this year in our grant application, we did deal with that,” Kempf said.
The grant will be provided through the Missouri Department of Conservation’s 2024 Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Program, which allows qualified entities to request reimbursement of local project costs for projects that enhance public access to outdoor recreation opportunities.
Corby Pond was renovated in 2022 and 2023 as part of a stormwater improvement project by the Public Works and Transportation Department. The pond was completely drained and excavated in preparation for improvements to the stormwater collection ability of the pond.
