City eyes mountain to sea trail additions
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on September 22, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Co-workers Cindy Jones, left, Phyllis Neal and Jeff Jones carry their boats to the water as they prepare to paddle out from the Cox's Ferry Boat Access for an afternoon of kayaking on Tuesday. The city of Goldsboro hopes to use boat access areas such as this as trail heads for constructing a link in the statewide Mountains to Sea Trail.
Goldsboro is preparing for potential construction of a missing link of the statewide Mountains to Sea Trail that runs through Wayne County.
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 Old Smithfield Road for the future construction of part of the trail if funds are awarded to Goldsboro by the state in the spring.
"The Mountains to Sea Trail has been part of our recreation master plan since that was developed," Parks and Recreation director Scott Barnard said. "The designated route for the (trail) to come through Goldsboro -- and there's already a route that was established in 1991 -- is recorded as beginning at Elm Street and Highway 117, it comes east on Elm Street, south on Center Street, and then east on Ash Street -- all the way to Stoney Creek Park. Then it turns south at Stoney Creek and runs all the way to the river. That is a route that was designated early on in the forming of the Mountains to Sea Trail before it was even a designated state park, which is a designation by the governor."
Duke has provided the city with an easement on their property that gives the city rights to the land for recreational development. In doing so, a piece of land is earmarked for the Mountains to Sea Trail to run through if funds are made available to the city from the state's Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.
Barnard said the key to securing the funds from the state is to make sure the community is shovel-ready when funds are made available.
"They are very much interested in seeing the communities east of Smithfield kind of getting our stuff together," Barnard said. "They watched the Triangle get pretty organized. The Triad followed the Triangle and then the mountain communities are already pretty hiking friendly, so they just had existing trails that they just needed to connect. And that's sort of been the vision all along, is to connect the existing systems in communities to create this Mountains to the Sea Trail. It wasn't to create a brand new trail that stretches from the mountains to the sea, it was to connect existing systems."
Another segment of the Mountains to Sea Trail is designated as running through Waynesborough Park, but there is no connection from the park to Elm Street, as Highway 117 runs directly through where a connection should be placed.
In addition to the highway blocking the area where the trail should connect, a set of railroad tracks and a cemetery also create a blockade.
In looking at where the trail should run, the city found that there were gaps in the trail created by private land in the middle of public land, and began looking for landowners who would be willing to partner with the state and small communities to complete the trail.
"There are gaps of private property, and in between those gaps are boat ramps, which make really nice trail heads," Barnard said. "It's existing parking and they've already got signage, some even have bathrooms and things like that. The plan is, 'Hey, let's get this easement from Duke and then let's figure out how to get this easement to connect to the two boat ramps that are out there, and then let's figure out how to get from the closer boat ramp to the property owned by the state that gets us almost all the way over to Waynesborough Park, and then we have a man-made barrier, and that's 117. But you know, 117 is in kind of a planning phase as well. In order to have a seat at the table to plan a pedestrian corridor underneath or around or over something like that, you have to have something in the works.
"Us accepting that easement gives something actionable for the state to work on, and it shows Duke's commitment to the process, it shows the city's commitment to it, and it shows that we're all meeting in the middle."