After 85 years, Emma Webb pool closed in 2018. It would have cost about $600,000 to put a new liner and upgrade the pool. The initial plan was to replace the pool, but the cost has kept it in a state of waiting.

At a recent City Council meeting, City Manager Tony Sears discussed the application for a grant from the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF), which is a state-funded grant program for land acquisition and development of parks.

The government website, ncparks.gov, states the North Carolina General Assembly funds PARTF each year and the Parks and Recreation Authority, a citizen board, allocates PARTF funds to applicants. The PRA is a nine-member group appointed by the Governor, the President Pro Tem of the North Carolina Senate, and the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives. The PRA has selected grant recipients and allocated money from the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund since 1997.

Should Kinston receive the PARTF grant, the community will be engaged to decide how best to rebuild Emma Webb park.

"We would involve the community to decide how to best decide what to do with the (Emma Webb) park," said Sears.

Kinston has a diversity of parks with a variety of things to do. When Emma Webb closed, the Holloway Park pool was used as a replacement to provide residents with a community pool.

PARTF has helped build and maintain parks, greenways, trails, playground and water access of state-wide parks and recreational areas for decades.

The PARTF Grant has been used in Lenoir County since 1999. The Neuseway Park Science Center and Planetarium requested the grant in 1999 and 2000 and received $175,000. In 2005 Fairfield park received $110,000. In 2011 Woodmen Water Park received $500,000. In 2016 Neuse River Greenway received a $175,000 grant.