Boone OKs Greenway

extension near new WHS

By Frank Ruggiero

The Boone Town Council hit the trail by approving a greenway connector near the new Watauga High School.

The town will commit $96,000 toward the trail, which follows a sewer easement unfit for development toward the Perkinsville area of town.

The funding will likely be drawn from an obesity prevention grant, and the decision follows suit with that made by the Watauga County commissioners, who disagreed with the county school board’s recommendation for an alternative path that veered further from the high school site.

School board members were leery of a trail so close to the high school, citing safety concerns, though the alternative would cost $236,000.

Blake Brown, director of Boone Public Works and chairman of the town’s transportation and greenway subcommittee, told council members that the school board’s selection would cut a 50-foot swath into a wooded area, resulting in the removal of three to four acres of trees, and included a 14-percent grade, which he likened to Grand Boulevard in downtown Boone.

Furthermore, the town would not be able to use in-kind services, as intended, because the price tag exceeds $125,000. Instead, the town would have to put a contract out to bid.

When approving plans for a new Watauga High School, the council had requested a greenway connector from the county, and upon the county’s approval of the trail plan, the commissioners requested the council prohibit parking on the Daniel Boone Drive cul de sac, while having Boone Public Works staff build the connector.

In order for grant funding to be used, the connector would have to be finished by May 31, Brown said.

Council member Rennie Brantz hailed the project as a “good cooperative project” and moved that the council accept the grant and authorize town staff to complete the work necessary to finish the trail by May 31.

Council member Liz Aycock seconded, and the motion carried unanimously.

“I think it’s going to be a great addition,” mayor pro tem Lynne Mason said. “It’s really about connecting our community … It’ll be exciting, and the nice thing is it has to be done by the end of May, so people get to use it by late spring and summer.”