The Albert Lea Parks and Recreation Department and Riverland Community College received grants Thursday from the Statewide Health Improvement Program to upgrade the baskets at the existing disc golf course at Bancroft Bay Park and to install signs for a new 18-hole course on Riverland’s campus.

The approved proposal, which was submitted to the state Monday by Freeborn County SHIP Coordinator Ellen Kehr, requested a $5,000 grant to purchase new baskets at Bancroft Bay Park and a $3,000 grant for signage and a kiosk at a future Riverland course.

Kehr worked in coordination with the Flying Lea Disc Golf Club to write the proposal.

“It’s going to be a wonderful facility,” said Kehr of the Riverland course. “It’s affordable and now we will have two free courses in Albert Lea.”

Eighteen baskets cost about $5,600. The club will pay for the amount the grant does not. The existing baskets will be transferred to Riverland, where over the winter they might be modified by a metals class before being installed next spring.

The grant money issued to Riverland will be used to install signage and a kiosk on the community college’s campus. Some holes will cross onto Albert Lea High School land and some onto Snyder Fields, which is leased by the city.

Kehr notes the advantages to having a course on Riverland’s campus is the amount of parking that is available and the bathrooms and picnic tables at nearby Snyder Fields.

Flying Lea coordinator Tim Engstrom, editor of this newspaper, said many colleges have disc golf courses these days to attract and for the benefit of students.

“There are many people to thank on this project — college, school, city” he said. “Our club had a vision, and our club’s board really has been instrumental, too.”

The club members will perform most of the installation work, he said.