The Columbia City Council has appropriated a $25,000 donation from the Columbia Cosmopolitan Luncheon’s Club towards improvements to the Frank G. Nifong Memorial Park in Columbia.
The club will be repeating the donation for the next five years, totaling $125,000 for the project, according to sixth ward city council member Betsy Peters.
“According to the information that we got, the donated funds are going to supplement a $250,000 improvement for the park,” Peters said.
The improvements would include a small shelter near Nifong Lake, parking expansions, the construction of a playground and a fishing dock and ADA-accessible walkways, among other things.
“We’ve connected the parking lot with the Boone County Historical Society down to the existing lot and added 72 cars. We’ve added a very nice new playground for the area that definitely didn’t have one,” said Ryan Atkinson, the planner for the park improvement project.
Peter says that the donation will supplement a $250,000 improvement to the park. The Columbia Cosmopolitan Luncheon Club could not be reached for comment.
The Nifong Park Improvement Project was originally approved by the Columbia City Council on Feb. 1, 2016, and improvements are still underway.