Every year, Bimbo Bakeries chooses a project in the community to put their time and money toward. Last year, is was landscaping at the new splash park. This year is was a huge face lift to Children’s Park.

Starting at 9:00 am, about 22 folks with Bimbo started to work leveling the playground that had been sand. By early afternoon, they had placed new borders to contain mulch that will allow for new grassy areas. A sand box was created with the sand that had been the base of the playground. The picnic shelter was pressure washed. The entrance sign and railings were painted. The scorer’s table was painted.

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Goal: $200K donations from community for Valdese Lakeside Park
Deadline: April 1, 2019
Why: To show grant officials our continued community support, to be eligible for large awards that require matching money and to grow our $200K to $800K.
How: Read on….

• Gather $200K in donations from the community by April 1, 2019.
• Use the community’s $200K as matching money for a $200K greenway along the waer grant from the state – DEQ (North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality). A 10ft wide crushed fine greenway along the lake and creek would be built (if awarded). Application due Dec 31, 2018.
• Take that $400K (if awarded) and use it as matching money for a $400K NC PARTF Grant. Application due May 1, 2019. This grant is for $400K in amenities.
• The town will have $800K (grown from local donations of $200K) to start building the park (if awarded).

Continue reading “Growing Amenities Money”

For the June 2 Trails Day Event, Santis Limezs created an Orienteering Event to help explore the park trails in a fun way. Santis placed 9 markers on the trail, handed out maps to the participants and recorded their departure time – and return time to see who completed the event with the best time.  Using mountain bikes (you can also walk or run the course), these were the best times

Holden Curry (49 minutes)
Jason Feimster (52 min)
Bearcats Team – Jaxon and Ethan (54 min)

This is the map Santis created, so you can try it on your own….

Continue reading “Orienteering at Valdese Lakeside Park”

As a part of the American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day, Friends of the Valdese Rec, with the support of the Valdese Parks and Recreation Department, hosted an event to get people out exploring the trails of Valdese Lakeside Park.

During the 2.5 hour event, the 70 participants could choose to do one or more of the following:

• a 4 mile trail run
• trails hikes (1-4 miles), participant chose – what to see and how far
• bike the trails with an orienteering event – find 9 markers (about 3.5 miles)
• learn the basics of disc golf and learn to throw from Foothills Disc Golf
• learn about the school mountain bike team located in the county
• just hang out

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At the start of the May 7 Town Council Meeting, Town Manager Seth Eckard announced that continued discussion of town financing for Valdese Lakeside Park is on hold for this budget year. This is due to the fact that the town must focus on a new priority that has come to light which will be revealed at the June 4 Town Council Meeting.

That means there will be no tax adjustment to build the park all at once as had been discussed at the May 1 Council Workshop. 

On May 2, 2018 FVR President Beth Heile met with Burke County Tourism Director Ed Phillips and Visitor Relations Manager Hollie Phillips to get their take on recreation as tourism in our county.

The major stat was in 2017, 4000 people stopped in the tourism office to ask about recreation opportunities – hiking, biking, camping, kayaking. If that many people stop in to ask questions, imagine how many are just searching the Internet. They have folks come from Charlotte just to use the greenway!

Another interesting stat, in April, 53 people stopped in to talk about moving to Burke County – most were considering relocating for jobs – not retirement.

Continue reading “Burke County Tourism Visit”

On Tuesday, May 1, a workshop was held for council to learn more about the Valdese Lakeside Park project and funding options. Although the public is not allowed to participate in these workshops, they are welcome to observe. About 40 people were present.

The first presenter was Eric Woolridge of Destination by Design. He covered the park plan, mostly as presented on April 3 to the public, with the addition of the public input from that meeting and a budget for the park.

Continue reading “Council Workshop on Valdese Lakeside Park”

Look for these signs on Lake Rhodhiss Drive to know where to enter the park for exploration! For more details – see Trails.