The Town of Century is getting $315,000 in state and federal grant money for a variety of improvement projects.

Most recently the Florida Department of Environmental Protection awarded Century $50,000 for new playground equipment at Buck Showalter Park.

The grant is one of 51 awarded under DEP’s Recreation Development Assistance Grant Program.

“We applied for the money because we knew it needed an upgrade,” said Mayor Freddie McCall. “Thank goodness we got it.”

The park sits in the middle of town on U.S. 29. It’s a popular place with residents, offering picnic tables and a convenient location for community events, but the playground equipment was more than 20 years old.

It was not only in bad shape, it wasn’t handicapped accessible. The old equipment has been demolished and the new equipment is on order, expected to arrive within four to six weeks.

The town is providing the labor to install it, in order to keep costs down and buy more equipment.

Century leaders also are applying for a different grant to install a “splash pad” for water play at the park, but they won’t know until next year, if they’ll get it.

Another $175,000 is coming to the town to strengthen homes against hurricanes. The money was awarded through the Florida Division of Emergency Management’s Residential Construction Program.

“This is wonderful, because people up here shelter in place,” said Town Planner Debbie Nickles.

Northview High School serves as a shelter, but it’s about 10 miles outside of Century and many people either don’t have transportation or won’t ride the bus to get there.

“Best thing we can do is tie them down and keep them safe at home,” says Nickles. The state notified Century they got the grant, but the town hasn’t received the funds yet.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development also awarded Century another $90,000 for housing rehab. The Housing Preservation Grant is used for the repair or rehabilitation of low-income homes.

Century has a waiting list of homes that need repairs and the town soon advertise for people to apply for the money.

Town leaders are looking forward to all the projects the grants are making possible.

“We are thrilled,” said Nickles. “There’s a lot of competition with these grants. You never know who will get them.”