Madison Township has submitted its application to gain access to federal funding that already has been promised for an erosion control project at Stanton Park. Township Administrator Tim Brown said he sent the application to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “They have it and they’ve accepted it, so I’m waiting for the next step from them,” Brown said, during the workshop that preceded the Nov. 12 township trustee board’s meeting. NOAA is the agency that’s authorized to release $1.02 million in federal funding that has been designated for a revetment construction project at Stanton Park. The park is located at 5585 Chapel Road. This money was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2024, which was passed by the U.S. House and Senate. U.S. Rep. David Joyce, R-Bainbridge Township, helped to ensure that fiscal year 2024 federal funding was earmarked for the project. Trustees intend to use the $1.02 million to construct a nearly 1,100-foot-long armor stone revetment to stabilize a bluff at Stanton Park that overlooks Lake Erie. That bluff, on the northern side of the park, has been decimated by erosion in recent years. A revetment is a protective covering built along a coastal cliff, bank or bluff to absorb and dissipate the energy of Lake Erie waves to reduce erosion. Armor stone, which comes from quarries, is often used as a component in revetments. Based upon visual observations and estimates generated through the study of Lake County Ohio Global Information System mapping, anywhere from 35 to 75 feet of shoreline in Stanton Park was lost to erosion caused by Lake Erie between 2017 and 2020. Those figures were cited in an Aug. 13 resolution approved by trustees, which declared the erosion of the Stanton Park shoreline to be an emergency. in 2021, the Lake Development Authority managed a project at Stanton Park during which a contractor graded the bluff and slowed the rate of erosion, the resolution also stated. A year later, an emergency repair was conducted on a 130-foot section of the bluff that failed. In March 2023, because of high water levels and continued loss of Stanton Park land to Lake Erie, Madison Township trustees authorized an application, through Joyce’s office, to seek federal funding for the immediate stabilization of the site’s bluff. Trustees learned in March 2024 that the township would be granted $1.02 million for the revetment construction project.