SPRINGFIELD — Nearly a million dollars in state grants has been awarded to three Champaign County park agencies for land acquisition and park improvement projects.

The Champaign Park District received the largest award from the Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant program — $400,000 — to develop Phase II of Porter Park at Windsor and Rising roads in far southwestern Champaign.

Other grants were awarded to the Tolono Park District, for $393,100, and the Champaign County Forest Preserve District, for $119,000.

The forest preserve district grant will help the agency completely cover the cost of purchasing 41.1 acres adjacent to the Middle Fork River Forest Preserve near Penfield in northeastern Champaign County.

The district already had received a $130,200 grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation to cover more than half of the $246,000 cost of the land purchase. The land was acquired last July.

"With these grants we acquired the property without any cost to the county's taxpayers," said Gerald Pagac, director of the forest preserve district.

Most of the property acquired is valuable wetlands, Pagac said. It will remain undeveloped except for a hiking trail.

"The land was being farmed although there were times when they weren't able to get much off of it," Pagac said. "We'll be planting prairies species in the upland area of it."

The land contains a portion of the Point Pleasant Wetland, a peat-filled bog that is unique in East Central Illinois, according to the forest preserve district. Purchase of the land provides an opportunity for permanent wetland preservation and biological improvement both to the wetland and to the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River.

With the acquisition, the Middle Fork preserve now grows to more than 1,700 acres. By comparison, Lake of the Woods Park near Mahomet is 900 acres and the Homer Lake preserve is 828 acres.

The grant to the Tolono Park District will pay about half the cost of developing the new 6.65-acre East Side Park on Walnut Street, according to Randy Grace, president of the park district.

"This is great news. It's the first we've heard of it," said Grace. "We were kind of down in the dumps the last few months because the last we have heard the governor wanted to sweep all the OSLAD money. Now it sounds like all the emails and letters we sent have paid off."

The state grant will pay for development of two baseball/softball fields, a soccer field, basketball court, playground, walking path and a concession/restroom/picnic shelter building, Grace said.

"Once we get the financing we'd like to get to work immediately on the ballfields," he said. "With all the demand we have, diamond time is pretty hard to get."

Grace credited Scott Morris of Pesotum, who is active in Tolono's youth baseball program, with getting the grant.

"He was very instrumental in getting this done," Grace said. "He's a person who cares a lot about the community and park space and green space. He doesn't even have kids in the sports programs, but he's very active."

Champaign's award will pay for several improvements at the 37.6-acre Porter Park, said Bobbie Herakovich, executive director of the park district. Included will be a fishing pier and boardwalk, a half-mile trail with interpretive signs, a shelter and a unique "naturescape" playground with tall prairie plants and other natural features, she said.

"We look at this as a community park, as something that will serve the entire community as well as the neighborhood around it," Herakovich said.

She too noted that park districts had put pressure on the governor's office to continue funding for the OSLAD program.

"The funding for this comes from a real estate transfer tax. It's dedicated money," she said. "This is not tax dollars being taken away from the general budget."