Washington’s City Council, during its Feb. 8 meeting, accepted a $1,500 grant from the Beaufort County Health Department to help build a kayak launch at Havens Gardens.

The grant would be paired with a grant from Sound Rivers (formerly the Pamlico-Tar River Foundation) to help pay for building the kayak launch at the waterfront park, according to Kristi Roberson, the city’s parks and recreation manager. The $1,500 would be used to buy items “needed to create a safe kayak launch ramp or improve Havens Gardens Park in order to increase and promote physical activity and a healthy lifestyle,” according to a city document.

During its July 13, 2015, meeting, the Washington City Council authorized the city’s recreation manager to apply for a Recreational Trails Program pre-application grant. The launching area would provide access to the Tar-Pamlico Blue Trail and connect two existing kayak/canoe trails. If awarded, the city must provide a 25-percent match, either with money or in-kind work and/or material.

Previously, the city sought up to $10,000 funding from the Adopt-A-Trails grant program to build a kayak launch at the Havens Gardens site, and it was approved to receive a grant for that project. Before the city received the funds, those funds were no longer made available through the program to complete that project and other projects the grant program had approved for funding.

The council also accepted another $1,500 grant from the health department, this one to build shuffleboard courts at the Grace Martin Harwell Senior Center or an “improved outdoor environment to increase physical activity” by senior citizens, according to a city document. Councilman Doug Mercer recommended using that grant to help install another kayak launch at the west end of the city docks should the shuffleboard courts not be built.

In other business, the council amended the city’s budget by allocating $11,000 for the resurfacing of the tennis courts at Bug House Park. The council spent several months discussing those tennis courts and related options.

The council rejected other options related to tennis courts, including the following:

• remove the existing tennis courts at Bug House Park and build new ones at the existing location for a cost not to exceed $100,000;

• remove the existing tennis courts at Bug House Park and build new ones at the Susiegray McConnell Sports Complex at a cost not to exceed $100,000;

• maintain Bug House Park at its current condition.

At the Nov. 9 meeting, council members said that once those courts are refurbished, it wants usage of those courts monitored for about a year. Depending on usage of those courts during that time, the council may revisit the issue of building new tennis courts, possibly at other locations.