CRANBERRY TWP — Officials and business leaders broke ground Monday afternoon at the site of the seventh Cranberry Township Community Chest project of the year.

The project will be the CTCC SportCourts at Graham Park, a new recreational area in a previously undeveloped part of the park.

The group wants to raise $750,000 in donations to build pickleball, tennis, basketball, bocce, shuffleboard, horseshoe and cornhole courts. How many of each type of court will depending on fundraising.

The initial plans call for eight pickleball courts, which would make it one of the largest collection of regulation courts in the state, township supervisor Dick Hadley said.

The 2017 project, like past projects, will improve the quality of life for the township’s resident, Hadley said.

“This project is going to be a magnet for drawing the community together in this great facility,” he said.

Community Chest board member Cindy Marzock said that the residents and businesses of the township always come together to make endeavors such as the project of the yea possible.

“I moved to Cranberry 25 years ago and what drove me to this area was the sense of community,” she said.

To help break ground, the Community Chest invited represented representatives of several businesses that have contributed to past projects.

“We have a very, very strong business community,” Marzock said.

These businesses included The Cranberry Eagle, UPMC Passavant hospital, Fun Fore All, Alcoa, PNC Bank and Westinghouse Electric Company.

The Community Chest will raise money for the costs of the courts, while Cranberry Township is already moving forward with other planned improvements in the park.

The township’s contribution is estimated at $2.4 million and will include new parking lots near the courts and near the Miracle League field, a new bathrooms and storage building, infrastructure improvements, trails, sidewalks and a community garden.

The township is working on design and getting stormwater management permits and officials plan to put out two contracts for bid in January, said Lorin Meeder, township environmental programs coordinator. The supervisors would then award bids in February and the work could start at the site in April, he said.

For information about how to donate to the project, visit www.ctcchest.org.