MAY 13, 2010 ISSUE
Watauga County Awarded $500,000 Grant for Rocky Knob Park Development
The North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund Authority (PARTF) awarded a $500,000 grant to Watauga County on May 7 for development of Rocky Knob Park. The amount received by Watauga County was the largest possible amount awarded by the state this year.
The Rocky Knob Park project was one of 83 total grant applications the state received. The total amount of funding for this year's PARTF Awards was $6.6 million. Twenty-four grants of varying amounts were awarded.
“Only one out of every four requests were funded,” said Eric Woolridge, Watauga County Tourism Development Authority (WCTDA) senior outdoor recreation planner. “So in order for us to get into that top tier, we had to come up with a pretty creative project that leveraged a lot of different pieces and demonstrated a real need.”
Watauga County Parks and Recreation Director Stephen Poulos said the grant is due to a lot of hard work by everyone who was involved.
“I am very, very pleased,” Poulos said. “Obviously, this is a really big grant, so this is a big deal for us. In our line of work and with my experience with [N.C.] Parks and Recreation, it's a very competitive grant situation, so I was very pleased and excited that we were selected this year.”
County officials plan to begin building the 185-acre mountain bike park this summer. The park will be located near the county landfill on Highway 421. Watauga County officials have already acquired 45.6 acres of land adjacent to the landfill.
“A portion of the PARTF dollars will go toward the acquisition of the 45 acres, which was purchased in December 2009,” Woolridge said. “In addition, those funds will be used to develop Phase II of the bike trails, pay for one of the planned shelters on the site and go toward construction of an adventure playground and bike skills development area.”
Construction of the road is scheduled to begin in June, with trail development slated to begin shortly thereafter. Woolridge expects Phase I and II of trail development will be completed by the end of the year.
This PARTF grant commits the WCTDA to completing the access road, parking area and Phase 1 of trail development by the end of summer. That first trail, expected to be open and in use by fall 2010, will be developed using two $5,000 grants already secured from the Bikes Belong Foundation and Specialized, a bicycle manufacturer. These grants were made possible through the WCTDA's partnership with Boone Area Cyclists, a local nonprofit organization working to promote and develop cycling opportunities throughout the Boone area.
WCTDA Executive Director Wright Tilley said, “[The PARTF grant] is the third grant we've received for this project, which confirms that Rocky Knob Park is a great project that resonates with officials in the parks and open space business.”
The revenues generated from the county’s occupancy tax will pay for the remainder of Rocky Knob Park. The county levies a 6 percent occupancy tax on those who stay at hotels, bed and breakfasts and other types of lodging while visiting the area.
“This whole project will be funded by the Watauga County TDA [in addition to other grants, such as the PARTF grant],” Poulos said. “This will not use any county money. This will all be paid for through the 6 percent occupancy tax.
“This is a perfect example of leveraging our assets to achieve a matching grant from the state. It's a great example of what can be done. Everybody's favorite kind of money is money that other people bring to our area,” Poulos continued. “Thanks to the hard work of everyone involved, we just got $500,000 from the state, so, to a degree, that's a free $500,000 coming to us for putting together this grant proposal.
“The county commissioners deserve tons of credit for their vision and foresight to see the benefits of this,” Poulos said. “They deserve credit for getting this thing going. They're the ones who made the decision to go for this grant and support us and get this thing rolling.
“There's a lot of potential down the road for other really good things to happen for Watauga County,” Poulos said. “If we can bring more tourists up here and have them stay at our hotels and go out to restaurants, and support our local stores, they'll keep pumping that tax money to us and I say, hey, come on—it ain't gonna hurt my feelings none.”
“It's really exciting,” Paul Stahlschmidt, a local mountain biker and organizer of the newly formed Boone Area Cyclists, said. “It's gonna be huge for recreation in our area. Our local cyclists are ready to rally. We've had more than 150 members join Boone Area Cyclists since November. So it shows that there are a lot of local people who are ready to get serious about advancing cycling in our area. And Rocky Knob is a big part of it, obviously.”
The WCTDA is in the process of hiring a trail designer to come in and lay out the trails and help facilitate construction. The decision on who will be selected will be based on an open bid selection process. The majority of the labor used to construct the trails will be provided in a volunteer capacity by the local cycling club, according to Stahlschmidt.
“Our local club will be a big part of the volunteer effort there,” Stahlschmidt said. “A big portion of the project at Rocky Knob will be dependent on volunteer labor. If people want to be involved with Rocky Knob, and they are cyclists, then they need to join Boone Area Cyclists and be a part of it. We're going to be able to secure some more funding, some trail tools and expert training. Right now we've got 15 members of our club being trained by the U.S. Forest Service for chain saw certification. When it's time to build trails, we're going to be ready.”
“It has been a great experience working with the Watauga County TDA and the university. This was our first grant we've ever done together and it was a very, very positive experience and I'm really excited about the potential benefits down the road. There's just a lot of positive momentum building toward the county tourism development authority in the recreation aspect.” Poulos said. “This first mountain bike course will open some new doors for us in regards to recreation in this community.”
“Eric Woolridge and everyone who has been involved with this project have done a tremendous amount of work in terms of helping to build momentum for outdoor recreation in this area,” Stahlschmidt added. “Rocky Knob Park will be a great resource for biking and hiking, something that's very unique that's unlike anything that's so close to town. There's more opportunity for recreation [at the park] than just cycling, and that's really exciting.”
North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund (PARTF)
Created by the General Assembly in 1994, PARTF is the first fund “dedicated to improving the quality of life in North Carolina through preservation of natural resources and development of public park and recreation facilities,” codified in North Carolina General Statutes §113-44.15. As with the Natural Heritage Trust Fund, PARTF is also housed in the N.C. Department of Parks and Recreation and funded by the state real estate deed transfer tax, receiving 75 percent of that revenue. PARTF distributes its money between three different projects. Sixty-five percent of PARTF funding goes into the State Parks System, some of which funds land acquisition. Thirty percent matches money spent by local governments on parks and recreation initiatives up to $250,000. The remaining 5 percent helps fund the Public Beach and Coastal Waterfront Access Program.
PARTF is the primary source of funding to build and renovate facilities in the state parks as well as to buy land for new and existing parks. The PARTF program also provides dollar-for-dollar grants to local governments. Recipients use the grants to acquire land and/or to develop parks and recreational projects that serve the general public.
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