Middlesboro receives $101,300 in state-backed safety and playground awards

Middlesboro is listed for two separate Kentucky awards totaling $101,300, directing state funding toward highway safety and a playground at Lincoln Park School.

The Kentucky Office of Highway Safety’s FY2026 plan lists a $28,500 award for the Middlesboro Police Department. The award is listed under Bell County and carries application number AL-2026-00-00-16.

A separate environmental grant names the City of Middlesboro as the recipient of $72,800 for a poured-in-place playground at Lincoln Park School. The project is funded through Kentucky’s Waste Tire Trust Fund, which supports projects that reuse waste tires in community improvements.

Two separate awards

The funding is not a single combined grant. The highway-safety award is assigned to the police department, while the playground grant names the city and identifies Lincoln Park School as the project site.

That distinction matters for residents because the awards address different local needs. The police funding is connected to highway-safety work, while the environmental grant is intended for a school recreation facility that will serve students and families.

The highway-safety plan identifies the department’s obligated amount as $28,500. It does not identify the specific equipment, staffing or enforcement activities associated with the award.

The playground award was included in the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection’s May 2026 grant announcements. The project is described as a poured-in-place playground, a surface and facility type that uses material derived from recycled waste tires.

What happens next

The awards are part of the FY2026 cycle. Their listing documents the funding decisions, but it does not establish that either project has been completed.

The environmental grant announcement does not provide a construction schedule or completion date. The highway-safety plan also does not set out a public project completion deadline in the award information.

For now, the documented action is the separate listing of $28,500 for the Middlesboro Police Department and $72,800 for the Lincoln Park School playground. The practical next steps are implementation of the police department’s approved highway-safety work and development of the playground project at the school.

Middlesboro’s municipal government is based at City Hall on North 21st Street. Lincoln Park School is the named site for the playground award, while the police award is identified within the Bell County portion of Kentucky’s highway-safety plan.