Greenway supporters meet, plan for future projects
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on November 29, 2015 3:05 AM
The Friends of Wayne County Greenways association held its annual meeting at Wayne Memorial Hospital last Friday, where members recapped the year and planned how to move forward with several projects.
Goldsboro Mayor-Elect Chuck Allen and North Carolina District 10 House Rep. John Bell were in attendance to listen to the concerns of the organizations as greenways become a central topic of discussion at the local and state level.
Bell expressed his support during the meeting, and discussed with the group a $2.8 billion state bond vote coming up in March 2016 that will appear on the presidential primary ballot that same month.
In this bond issue there is $980 million in funding for various building renovations and construction at several University of North Carolina universities, $350 million in funding for construction, repairs and renovations at various North Carolina community colleges, $312.5 million for local parks and infrastructure, $70 million for readiness centers for the National Guard, $179 million for two agriculture projects at N.C. State University and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, $100 million for state parks and attractions and $8.5 million for the Samarcand Training Academy in Moore County.
The $312.5 million set aside for local parks and infrastructure is the portion of the bond vote that could aid in amping up Goldsboro's greenway system, which would improve quality of life in Wayne County, the association says.
Becky Craig, vice president of finance at Wayne Memorial Hospital, is the organizer of the Friends of Wayne County Greenways.
"We have tried to increase awareness of existing trails and push Scott (Barnard) and others to get more trails in Wayne County," Ms. Craig said.
Goldsboro has positioned itself to be a prime candidate for a new addition to the statewide Mountains to Sea Trail.
The city has partnered with Duke Energy and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to secure a tract of land near the H.F. Lee power plant facility on Black Jack Church Road for the future construction of part of the trail if funds are awarded to Goldsboro by the state in the spring.
Mountains to Sea Trail representatives Kate Dixon and Bill Scott were present at the meeting to listen to the group's ideas and concerns about bringing the trail through Wayne County.
"We received notification in the form of a letter on Friday a week ago (Nov. 13) that we received funding in this current cycle of RTP (Recreational Trails Program) money to the tune of $92,000 and some change," said Parks and Recreation Director Scott Barnard. "That will fund the next segment of the Mountains to Sea Trail south of Elm Street."
Barnard said representatives had expressed a strong interest in bringing the still missing segments of the Mountains to Sea Trail through Goldsboro as opposed to any other eastern North Carolina area.
"All of you know that the Mountains to Sea Trail is a state trail, and the designated route currently comes through Wayne County going west to east and state parks has a strong desire to tie to Cliffs of the Neuse (state park)," Barnard said. "We've got some other anchors in the form of a dedicated trail done by the Stoney Creek Alliance that goes through Stoney Creek Park. The designated route also goes all the way into downtown Goldsboro, which everybody knows we just redid that."
Ms. Craig also provided the group with statistics on factors affecting quality of life in Wayne County, giving numbers for how Wayne County ranks out of all 100 counties in North Carolina on certain quality of life elements.
In the category of "healthy outcomes," or lifestyle factors that contribute to overall health, Wayne County ranks 54th. In "length of life," Wayne County ranks 68th. In "healthy behaviors," which consists of things such as rates of smoking and obesity, Wayne County ranks 77th. And in "social and economic factors," Wayne County ranks 56th.
In all of these categories, the lower the score -- or the closer the county gets to being ranked number one -- the higher the quality of life citizens have.
According to the Friends of Wayne County Greenways, building more greenways and trails will help continue to push those numbers downward, as six-year trends show a steady crawl toward lower rankings.
Keeping greenway development at the top of the Goldsboro City Council's list of priorities is crucial in connecting and completing the remaining missing greenway links in Wayne County, Barnard said.
For the past two years, the City Council has placed emphasis on greenways and park development as goals to continually work on at the annual City Council retreat.
"Greenways and park improvements have been two of the top four priorities in our community," Barnard said. "The other two were blight, and I believe something related to safety. For y'all as a group, if that's important for greenways or park improvements to remain a priority for those elected officials, you know, it's not going to do us a whole lot of good in March to kind of be scratching our head because we're priority number six."