Problem
Solution
A park that already punches above its weight
Old Celina Park is not a typical small-city park. Already a local and regional destination, it hosts world-class baseball fields, multi-purpose athletic fields, a catch-and-release pond, and a full complement of amenities that draw visitors from well beyond Celina's city limits. For a community of 18,000, it is an outsized asset and a point of genuine civic pride.
But for families with children of differing abilities, there was a gap. Celina's existing playgrounds served young children and met ADA accessibility requirements, but none were designed to the higher standard of true inclusion: environments where children of all abilities can play alongside each other, not just alongside each other in name. Closing that gap was a community priority, backed by public input data and years of local advocacy.
The community had already spoken
This project did not emerge from a top-down planning process. During the development of Celina's Parks Master Plan, the City conducted six public input meetings, built a dedicated project website, and ran an online survey that collected feedback from more than 200 residents. The results were unambiguous: new amenities for families with young children and playground improvements ranked as the second and third highest community priorities, trailing only trails.
That depth of community engagement was not just meaningful for residents. It was a strategic asset in the grant applications. TPWD's Local Parks Grant programs weight demonstrated community need and public input heavily in their scoring criteria. B&A translated Celina's authentic, documented community process into a compelling funding narrative.
A phased strategy built around what was actually achievable
The full project vision was ambitious, and B&A recognized early that trying to fund everything in a single application would either exceed program limits or outpace the City's capacity to manage delivery. The smarter path was a deliberate two-phase approach, each phase sized to maximize the available grant funding and timed to Celina's realistic implementation capacity.
Phase 1: 2020 Award of $150,000
TPWD Local Parks Grant — Small Community Program
- Inclusive destination playground for ages 8 and up
- Multiple climbing structures and rope features
- Ramps and wide pathways for wheelchairs and walkers
- Poured rubber surfacing throughout
- Ground-level interactive play elements
- Traditional and ADA-accessible swings
- Sensory-friendly tunnel features
- ADA pathways connecting to existing park amenities
- Seating, shade structures, and interpretive signage
Phase 2: 2022 Award of $750,000
TPWD Local Parks Grant — Non-Urban Outdoor Recreation Program
- Additional ADA swings and a musical garden
- Multi-purpose play area with Celina's first spray fountain
- Two large shaded pavilions with ADA picnic amenities and LED lighting
- Four additional shade structures with picnic areas
- Volleyball courts
- Celina's first pickleball courts
- Native, drought-tolerant tree planting
- Interpretive signage throughout
What "inclusive" actually means in practice
The distinction between ADA-accessible and genuinely inclusive is worth understanding clearly. An accessible playground meets minimum federal standards: ramps where there are steps, accessible surfacing at entry points, a handful of accessible equipment items. An inclusive playground is designed from the ground up so that children of all abilities can use the same spaces, engage in the same activities, and play together rather than in parallel.
For Old Celina Park, that meant sensory-friendly spaces for children on the autism spectrum, ground-level interactive elements accessible to children who cannot climb, wider pathways throughout for wheelchair and walker users, and exercise features scaled for older children and teens who are often underserved by standard playground design. The result is not a separate "accessible area" bolted onto a conventional playground. It is a fully integrated environment where the inclusive features are the design.
From award to closeout: managing the full lifecycle
Winning a grant is one thing. Managing it through to closeout is another. TPWD Local Parks Grant awards carry significant post-award obligations: reimbursement documentation, progress reporting, procurement compliance, site control requirements, and a closeout process that requires careful coordination with state program staff. For a small city with a lean administrative team, that workload is real and meaningful.
B&A managed both awards end to end, from the initial applications through every administrative milestone to final closeout. That continuity across both phases also meant B&A understood the project's history, commitments, and documentation requirements going into the second award, which made the Phase 2 application stronger and the management process more efficient.
What Old Celina Park looks like now
The completed project transforms Old Celina Park from a strong community park into something genuinely special: a destination that serves children and families of all abilities with infrastructure most cities several times Celina's size do not have. The inclusive playground, the spray fountain, the pavilions, the pickleball courts, the musical garden — taken together, they represent a comprehensive investment in community quality of life that was built deliberately, funded strategically, and managed from start to finish by a team that understood what was at stake.
For B&A, this engagement reflects what grant management done right looks like: not just writing a successful application, but seeing a community's vision through from the first funding conversation to the ribbon cutting.