curt's blog

Celebrations Scheduled for Seven Carolina Thread Trails

Starting on September 15, seven Carolina Thread Trail communities will host “Marking The Thread” celebrations in North and South Carolina as local leaders officially unveil the newly-marked trails. Attendees will experience the new trails and greenways that will ultimately weave throughout 15 counties and connect more than 2 million people. The Thread offers a growing network of trails and conservation corridors for walking, biking, commuting, fishing, paddling and simply enjoying. Counties and towns design and own the trails that enrich communities in the areas of health and wellness, economic development, land preservation and community collaboration. Of the 15 counties in The Thread region, eight have fully-adopted master plans, four are in the active planning stages and three are engaged in the citizen outreach phase. To date, counties with adopted plans have identified 874 miles of planned trails and more than 63 miles of trails are now open for public enjoyment. The Cloninger Trail and South Fork River Trail in Lincoln County, the Highland Rail-Trail in Gastonia and the Oakboro Rail-With-Trail in Stanly County are on rail corridors and are now part of the growing Thread initiative. See below for the dates of the celebrations. For more information, please visit carolinathreadtrail.org

September 18

Lincolnton - Lincoln County, NC

Oakboro - Stanly County, NC

Baxter Village - York County, SC

Landsford Canal - Chester County, SC

September 19

Broad River - Cleveland County, NC

September 25

Davidson - Mecklenburg County, NC

October 9

Nation Ford - York County, SC

Carolina Thread Trail --Receives Clean Water Grant and Sees New Segment Soon in Albemarle

The North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF) has awarded the Carolina Thread Trail $1 million for permanent land conservation and trails along regional waterways as part of its 2010 grant allocation. The funds will be used to support local communities as they acquire land for trail segments along waterways throughout the 11 North Carolina counties within The Thread’s 15-county footprint. See the CTT release for details.

In Albemarle, the Parks & Recreation Dept. reports that construction of a new section of the CTT is moving forward and should be open by early 2011. Please contact Toby Thorpe at Parks & Recreation for updates, opening information.

Durham Urged to Use Earmark Funds for Rail Corridor Soon

In late July, Durham received a letter from Congressman David Price urging them to take prompt action to obligate $2 million appropriated in 2005 for preservation of a rail corridor. At that time Durham was negotiating with Norfolk-Southern (NSC) for a short corridor commonly referred to as the beltline. Those talks broke down but NSC has recently indicated it is interested in renewing discussions about at least a portion of the beltline. The urgency arises because the House has passed a bill seeking to rescind some $713 million in old, unspent funds for transportation. While these corridor funds are not included, Price's staff believe other unspent earmarks may also be vulnerable to recission. For a fuller discussion, please see the recent Herald-Sun article.

Public Hearings for Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor

Public hearings are being held during July to seek public comments on the Tier II Env. Impact Statement for the Richmond to Raleigh portion of this corridor. As we have reported earlier, the completion of this corridor will result in a wider and straighter corridor than at present and one that includes a designated lane that can be used to develop a future trail. In  North Carolina, current transportation policy foresees that the development and construction of rail-with-trail projects will be the responsibility of city and county governments. While this policy allows local initiative and local decisions on trail widths and surfaces, the resources required will be substantial and development may be extended for many years. If you support having rail-with-trail on this corridor and would like to see the State of North Carolina have a leading role in trail development on this corridor rather than leaving all development to cities and counties, please consider attending one of these hearings to express your views. Here is the link to the SEHSR page showing upcoming times and locations. As part of the Environmental Impact Statement process, NC DOT is also seeking public input through a short on-line survey. Please spend a few minutes to complete this survey and let the State know you strongly support this and want DOT and other State agencies to take an active role in getting trails planned and constructed from the VA line to Raleigh.

UPDATES:

AL Capehart and Carrie Banks, our new Executive Director, attended the 7-26 meeting in Raleigh and provided input on rail-trail interests and issues. If you are a Facebook user, please check in with NCRT's Facebook page for updates on the high speed rail corridor and other areas we are involved in.

Recent Articles on High Speed Rail

DOT to Examine Alternate Routes for High Speed Rail

Resident's Thoughts on Impacts from 7/13 Meeting at Norlina

Residents Give Input at 7/26 Meeting at Raleigh

Deadline for Comments on SEHSR Extended to September 10

Background on Hearings

Ecusta Trail Group Has Incorporated and is Seeking Non-Profit Status

The Friends of Ecusta Trail has been incorporated and 501(c)(3) status is being applied for. A website is under construction and press releases have been prepared for a widespread announcement of the organization and its plans for an 18 plus mile rail-trail on the discontinued Norfolk Southern RR rail corridor. Efforts are underway to add to the number of local units of government publicly endorsing the trail. Please contact NCRT's Mike Domonkos for info on status.

West Pender Rail-Trail Alliance Incorporates, Seeks Non-Profit Designation

The Alliance met April 12, June 7 and June 21 in the Pender County Tourism Development Office in Burgaw. Susan Bullers, the Alliance Chair, reports that the Alliance incorporated under NC law, established a bank account and through recent fundraisers has raised enough to pay for the IRS filing fees for the 501(c)(3) status. Using two donated bicycles from Wilmington’s Two Wheeler Dealer and $5 raffle tickets the Alliance raised over $1K and celebrated at the Burgaw Blue Berry Festival.

Executive Director Starts Work at North Carolina Rail-Trails

After a several month search and a good number of interviews NCRT's Board is pleased to announce the hiring of their first paid position. In early July Carrie Banks became the first executive director of North Carolina Rail-Trails. Carrie is the 9th generation of her family to call Ashe County, NC home and currently resides in Carrboro. She received her Master’s of Science from North Carolina State University in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management in May 2010. She was awarded the NC Tourism Education Foundation’s 2008 Tourism Student of the Year award at the North Carolina Governor’s Conference on Tourism. Carrie also holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies, with honors, from UNC-Chapel Hill. Between 2002 and 2007, Carrie was the conservation coordinator for the North Carolina Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, where she worked with the protection staff acquiring thousandsof acres of land for conservation. For the next several weeks, Carrie will be meeting with individual Board members to learn more about our goals and objectives and later will be meeting with staff from our non-profit partners. If you need to reach Carrie, her contact information is listed on our Board of Directors page.

General Assembly Retains Funding for Adopt-A-Trail Grants

Great news! The General Assembly just passed a budget that retains full funding of $108,000 for the Adopt-a-Trail program, despite the extremely tough financial situation faced by state government this year. Over the years several of our rail-trails have been improved through these grants and we have been strong supporters of the program. Thanks for your help in telling legislators about the value of the program. Legislators did report they heard from constituents, and that really made a difference in such a difficult year. Please take a moment now to thank your legislators for supporting the program. They will appreciate it, and it will help stengthen the support for future funding. Here is contact information for House members and Senators.

NCRT Board Member Finished Race Across America

Henry McKoy of Durham, our latest Board member, recently completed the 3005 mile Race Across America (RAAM). As a former track athlete but admittedly novice bike racer, Henry rode as part of a team sponsored by Durham Cares, a non-profit group supporting a variety of volunteer activities and charitable efforts in the Durham area. The team finished 4th of 12 teams in the 8 person Open category and were on the road for 6 days, 13 hours and 14 minutes. Henry survived the event fine but did have to replace his bike in Colorado. A small part of his adventure is shown in video 3 on the Durham Cares site. Over $104,000 has been donated to date and contributions are still coming in.

NCRT's Capehart Speaks at Dedication of Chatham Section of ATT

About 100 attended the dedication of the recently completed section of the ATT on National Trails Day, June 5th. As one the earliest advocates for the ATT, Board member AL Capehart gave a short presentation on the early steps of preserving the corridor, acquiring funding for the ATT Master Plan and getting the ATT included within the State's Transportation Improvement Plan. For more read AL's remarks and view his podium picture.