Jesus Valdez, county manager, said the county will construct the Pearson Playground with funds from a federal Community Development Block Grant and that the project must meet the programs income-eligibility criteria.

"The Pearson Playground that that will be constructed, that comes from a grant... it's a CDBG, which is Community Block Grant," Valdez said. He added that an eligibility requirement for the grant is serving people who are low to moderate income and that the county had to qualify the project to meet the grant conditions.

Valdez described CDBG as a federal program intended to help communities that lack access to amenities found in more affluent areas. "One of the criterias of the grant and how we utilize it is is is, is that the people we're trying to serve have to be low to moderate income," he said. He said the grant is intended to "help more of the underprivileged or more of the people that don't have access to some of these facilities."

The interview did not record dollar amounts for the Pearson Playground grant, a project timeline, or a listed contractor. Valdez said the county used the grants qualifying rules to align the project with the program but did not specify the exact income thresholds or the grant award date.

No formal board action on the playground was included in the interview.