Mixed News on Trail Projects: A Setback for the Ecusta, a Step ahead for paths at Bracken Preserve
Besides word about these projects, the Brevard City Council received news of unexpected costs -- and additional funds -- for its multi-use Estatoe Trail.
BREVARD — To keep track of everything going on with city of Brevard trail projects, you might need a cheat sheet:
Ecusta Trail: bad news.
The city, which last year agreed to take the lead on building the stretch of the 19.4-mile trail in Transylvania, applied this spring for a federal grant that would have covered most of that 8.4-mile section’s construction costs. Last week, the city learned it wouldn’t get the money.
Bracken Preserve: good news.
The city, working with Conserving Carolina, has entered into a contract to buy 34 acres of pristine land to add to the Preserve and later plans to add more than two miles of trails on this property that will provide gently sloping, easy access to an existing trail network that leads to the heart of Pisgah National Forest. Before this can happen the city must raise $235,000 to meet the agreed-upon $325,000 land cost before the scheduled Oct. 7 closing.
Estatoe Trail: mixed bag.
The City Council on Monday learned it faces added costs on two sections of the Estatoe, but also that it had $315,600 available to boost a crucial stretch that will run between Rosman Highway and Brevard High School.
The Details
The city had high hopes for receiving the federal grant for the Ecusta, which it had sought several times previously, Brevard Mayor Maureen Copelof said in March.
There was more federal money available this year, the city had a rare letter of support from the Transylvania County Commission and had lined up about $4.5-million in matching funds, including a $1 million pledge from the Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority. Also, Dogwood Health Trust had signed on to help write the grant application.
Though disappointed in the outcome, Copelof said that Dogwood’s work can be used in future grant applications, including a likely request for money from the federal Department of Transportation.
“The need has not changed; the costs and the cost-benefit analysis have not changed, so any of that is applicable to any grant that we want to go after,” she said on Monday.
The city must determine whether it will be able to carry over the pledge from Tourism, which was contingent on the city receiving the recently denied grant, she said Monday. But the funding program she has in mind, which is not yet accepting applications, is targeted at projects that access federal lands such as Pisgah, meaning the city may have leg up.
Meanwhile, she said, money from a previous grant will allow the city to begin design of the stretch in Transylvania, expected to cost a total of about $20 million.
A subsidiary of Conserving Carolina already owns the entire path of the trail, a former rail bed running between Brevard and Hendersonville, and funds are available to start construction in Henderson County.
The first phase of expanding the Bracken Preserve, west of downtown near the Brevard Music Center, entails buying the parcel of “special woodland with clear mountain creeks, high elevation seeps, and healthy oak forests,” according to a press release last week from Conserving Carolina, adding the property is home to “rare plants, such as yellow lady slippers, and many kinds of wildlife, including salamanders, which thrive in the seeps.”
A second phase would include a $180,000 trail project, to be completed with the help of volunteer labor, that will add two to three miles of trails, said Torry Nergart, Conserving Carolina’s conservation easement manager.
These paths will be more moderately sloped than the existing trail access, which requires high levels of fitness and cycling skills, he was quoted as saying in the announcement.
“Most mortals find the current trails at Bracken difficult, and these planned ones open new possibilities for exploration,” he said.
The city has raised $90,000 for the land purchase. Potential donors can contribute through the Conserving Carolina website, the release said, and on Sept. 25, the city will host the Brackenfest fundraiser that rewards those non-mortals Nergart talked about — fast and fit cyclists.
“Mountain bikers will raise funds by getting donations for each lap that they ride in Bracken during the three-hour event. Bikers can enter solo or as a team relay. You can find more information in the calendar listing at 185kingst.com,” the announcement said.
At its meeting Monday night, the City Council heard several presentations about the Estatoe, the city’s long-planned multi-use trail .
The council voted to add $100,000 to the budget for building the short, long-delayed stretch of the Estatoe between the Depot Railroad Avenue Park and Main Street — most of it to cover additional and unexpected costs of moving a water line. It heard even worse news about the trail’s planned bridge over the Davidson River near the entrance of Pisgah.
The city is responsible for 20 percent of the bridge’s total cost, originally estimated at $600,000, according to documents presented to the Council. The cost of the state Department of Transportation project has since skyrocketed thanks to added archeological work and Covid-19-related inflation of construction costs.
“It’s just hitting us at a bad time,” Aaron Bland, the city’s assistant planning director, said at the meeting.
The city has already paid its $120,000 share of the original cost, said city Finance Director Dean Luebbe. It was informed last November it would need to pay an additional $160,000, which the Council has approved but that the city has not spent, and more recently, an additional $148,000.
Backing out of the project would be even more expensive, Luebbe said, because the city would have to pay back about $600,000 in federal funds the state has already invested in the project.
That left the Council with little choice but to approve the added expenditure, with the understanding that the city would pursue reimbursement for the $308,000 of the last two supplemental charges from the state.
Luebbe has reached out to state lawmakers, he said, and though “we don’t have any promises, we feel optimistic that might work out in our favor.”
Because of these previous added costs, a divided Council voted to postpone paying $99,000 for an engineer to begin designing the stretch of the Estatoe between Rosman and the high school.
But this project was boosted by the $315,600 that had originally been earmarked for a bridge over Railroad Avenue that the state is now scheduled to finance.
“A lot of times we express some frustration at the pace of (building) the trail,” said Council member Aaron Baker, “but that section of the trail in front of Brevard High School is going to be great . . . What an important thing to have down the road, (a trail) for kids to safely get to school.”
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