For his Eagle Scout Project, Luke Blalock with Boy Scout Troop 224 built 2 Scorer’s Tables at Fletcher Ball Park in Valdese.
The project filled a huge need, as there were no scoring tables for the 2 fields. The Athletic Supervisor at the Valdese Recreation Department said about 2000 people come through Fletcher Ball Field during the spring softball/baseball season. There are 8-9 teams of Valdese kids (ages 7-13, boys and girls) that play 4-5 home games. Continue reading
A new mapping system is available to help in your exploration of Valdese Lakeside Park.
At this address – https://friendsofthevaldeserec.org/app/vlp/ – you will find the colored trails – names and mileages. You will have the choice of showing trails on a background of the terrain or the proposed park plan. Most amazing is the “You Are Here” feature. While out on the trails, you can access the maps with your smart phone to show your location in the park. You can even follow along as you move.
To use the map features, click on the icon that looks likes layers or a stack of paper.
This will bring up the choices for background – Park Plan (just the Destination by Design Park Plan with white surround), Hybrid Park Plan (with street surround), photo (shows buildings and roads), Terrain (lines for streets and topographic lines).
Below the background choices (choose one), you can select none or all of what to show on the map.
The colored trails are mapped with ribbon at the park. See Red and Yellow ribbons at the intersection of those trails in picture on right.
The 10 Orange/White Orienteering Markers create a scavenger hunt across the property.
Thanks to Eric Heile for creating this Interactive Map.
Four major trails at Valdese Lakeside Park have been flagged by FVR members.
Green Way 1.3 mi
Blue Point 0.5 mi
Red Outer 1.6 mi
Yellow Connector 0.35 mi
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.
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….
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….
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:
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.
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.