By Edmond Ortiz
Three local nonprofits are planning to use a combined $50,000 in newly awarded grants to enhance parks and recreational amenities in Alamo Heights.
What you should know
Alamo Heights City Council on Nov. 10 approved Community Improvement Grants totalling $50,000 to the Alamo Heights Little League, Friends of Hondondo Creek Trails, and Green Spaces Alliance of South Texas.
Specifically, Alamo Heights Little League is receiving $25,228 to replace lighting at the AHLL fields, and to improve LED lighting around the complex.
Friends of Hondondo Creek Trails is receiving $21,000 to improve nature trails in a wooded area that lies southwest of the corner of Viesca, Crescent and Greely streets.
Green Spaces Alliance is receiving $3,772 to buy four picnic tables to install at the Alamo Heights Community Garden.
A fourth organization, Headwaters at Incarnate Word, requested $30,000 to help support a multi-season biodiversity study of the San Antonio River headwaters area.
A deeper look
City Council back in Fiscal Year 2023 started allocating funds to support the annual awarding of Community Improvement Grants as a form of financial assistance for select local nonprofits, which oversee programs and initiatives that directly affect Alamo Heights, and engage local residents.
Several AHLL teams have won regional or sectional championships in recent years.
While the Hondondo Creek trails are open to the public and easily accessible via the adjacent Judson nature trails, the Friends of Hondondo Creek Trails group occasionally offers birdwalks and other activities to promote the natural trails that the organization’s volunteers maintain.
Based in San Antonio, GSAST uses special events, workshops and education to promote the preservation of local open lands, and enhancing natural areas surrounded by urban environments.
The alliance recently closed on the acquisition of four new conservation easements: the Barker farm, which features historic structures and a diverse ecosystem near Comal Springs at Landa Park in New Braunfels: the Warbler Woods bird and wildlife sanctuary between Cibolo and Schertz; and the contiguous Wolfe Ranch and Rocamontes properties, which are protected in coordination with the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program in Medina County.
