The N.C. Parks and Recreation Authority is coming to Washington later this week.

“This is one of their quarterly meetings,” said Phil Mobley, Washington’s parks and recreation director, on Tuesday.

The 15-member authority, which includes Washington resident Ashley B. “Brownie” Futrell Jr., decides how money from the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund is allocated. The authority is scheduled to meet at the North Carolina Estuarium while in the city Thursday and Friday.

“The March meeting is laying the groundwork for the local-government grants they will hand out,” said Charlie Peek, public information officer with the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, on Tuesday.

The authority’s May meeting is held in Raleigh each year, but the authority takes its other quarterly meetings on the road, usually visiting a state park during each of those meetings, Peek said. The authority is scheduled to visit Goose Creek State Park on Friday.

In September 2010, the city accepted a $295,125 Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources to help begin the Festival Park project. The city is providing another $295,125 toward the project.

In January 2010, the council added the Festival Park master plan to the city’s parks and recreation master plan. That master plan calls for a performance venue, public restrooms, a children’s play area, picnic shelter and benches, among other things.

“We’ve got their attention. They’ve got our attention. They gave us $295,000,” Mobley said when asked if the city planned to take any requests to the authority during its two-day stay in Washington.

“They’ll be able to see some of our work,” Mobley added.

The Estuarium, where the authority will meet, is adjacent to the Festival Park area.

Beaufort County is seeking a $67,000 PARTF grant to help buy land for a proposed public boat-launching and fishing-pier complex at Crisp Landing on Blounts Creek. In April 2010, the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners voted to buy property on which to build the complex.

The Division of Coastal Management has awarded Beaufort County a Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access Program to help buy the property. This grant, along with the pending PARTF grant, could provide the bulk of the money to purchase the property, County Manager Paul Spruill told the commissioners in April 2010.

The N.C. General Assembly established PARTF on July 16, 1994, to fund improvements in the state’s park system, grants for local governments and increase the public’s access to the state’s beaches. The PARTF dollar-for-dollar grants to local governments are used to acquire land and/or to develop parks and recreational projects that serve the public.

Sixty-five percent of PARTF money goes to improve state parks. Thirty percent of PARTF funding goes to local governments. The remaining 5 percent of PARTF money goes to the Coastal and Estuarine Water Access Program. A grant of up to $500,000 may be awarded to a local government during each grant cycle.

Some of the revenue for the PARTF program comes from a tax levied on real-estate sales, Peek said.

“Since 2008, that revenue has taken a nose dive” because of a depressed real-estate market in the state, Peek said.

The authority awarded $9.1 million in grants to local governments in fiscal year 2009-2010, but $1.3 million were returned because some local governments were unable to proceed with their proposed projects, Peek said.