McDowell County park may get updates
Steve Pierce, president of the McDowell Trails Association, speaks to the McDowell County Board of Commissioners on April 13.
The park behind McDowell County's Universal Advanced Manufacturing Center may get some improvements.
Steve Pierce, president of the McDowell Trails Association, talked to county officials about a proposal to make improvements to the park area behind the Universal Advanced Manufacturing Center building at an April 13 McDowell County Board of Commissioners meeting.
The park on county-owned property has a small trail system, two ponds and a disc golf course. There have been some preliminary discussions of enhancing the park as well as adding some parking spaces.
Pierce said the stakeholders who are working to enhance the park include the MTA, McDowell Technical Community College, McDowell County, McDowell County Parks & Recreation, McDowell Economic Development Association, the city of Marion and Destination McDowell.
Pierce said the vision for the Universal Park includes of a family-friendly trail that would go around the two ponds, a perimeter trail, mountain bike trails, upgrades to the disc golf course, access for fishing from the ponds, a picnic shelter and an amphitheater.
County Manager Ashley Wooten said those ponds exist there to be used for fire suppression at the Universal Center and they must remain on the property. That limits the county's ability to use that land for other purposes besides a park.
Pierce asked the commissioners to approve this plan for upgrading and enhancing the park.Commissioner Lynn Greene asked if any county money would go into this project.
"Right now, we are not asking for any funds," Pierce said. "We plan to do these plans through grants and the fundraising that we do."
Both Pierce and county officials said the Universal Park is already a nice park, but it can become so much more and has a lot of potential.
"It's a beautiful spot," Pierce said. "We have used the phrases 'It's a gold mine' and 'It's a diamond in the rough.'"
The commissioners unanimously approved the concept of new and improved Universal Park.
In another matter, Parks and Recreation Director Aikman Kazee gave a report about recreation improvements and asked the board to consider revising several fees.
While fee changes are typically considered during the budget process, these proposed higher fees affect summer-related activities such as the swimming pools. The proposed increases are for admission to the swimming pools, rental of the Marion and Old Fort pools, rental of the gym at the Rec Center and rental of the Maple Leaf complex. The fee increases are proposed to help cover the cost of operations, county officials said.
After a discussion, the commissioners agreed to the revising of the fees.
Road renamed?
The board also held a public hearing about the renaming of a road on April 13.
All of the property owners on Ralph Thomas Road in Nebo have requested that the road be renamed Adkins Drive. The proper contact has been made with the N.C. Department of Transportation and the hearing was advertised as required, Wooten said.
The commissioners held the required hearing and heard no comments from the public. They voted unanimously to rename the road.
In addition, the McDowell County commissioners:
■ Heard a report from Wooten about water system projects. He said a master meter has been installed at the entrance to Memorial Park Road as part of the Nebo water project. There is another effort to install water lines for the Providence/West Marion area and the Asset Inventory and Assessment Project is now underway. The first steps for this effort involve doing a complete inventory of the county's water assets and updating the mapping.
■ Talked about county policies regarding employee service recognition and nepotism when hiring workers. After a discussion, the commissioners did not reach a decision and will talk about these policies some more.
■ Talked about greater digital accessibility. The United States Department of Justice is in the process of implementing new rules under the Americans with Disabilities Act that will require improvements and enhancements to the county's websites, social media pages and YouTube videos. To meet this requirement, governments must follow a set of widely used accessibility standards. In simple terms, this means things like adding captions to videos, making sure text is easy to read, and ensuring websites work with screen readers and keyboard navigation. The board did not act on this matter.
■ Talked about fire inspection updates. There have been discussions with the city of Marion about formalizing understandings with several fire inspection-related dues including inspection of schools and approval of fireworks shows. Two resolutions were proposed to be adopted to formalize these situations. In addition, the fire inspector position for the county is being moved from the Inspections Department to Emergency Services under the fire marshal, which is typical in many counties. This change would be effective July 1, though there will be a transition over time. The commissioners voted to adopt these updates.
■ Approved the closing of a section of Polly Spout Road for the Gold Rush 5K on Saturday, June 6.
