Selected Chatham News--2000-2002

During late 2002, Chatham's County Attorney prepared a draft lease for the Chatham section. During May and June 2002, Bill Bussey and Chatham County Parks & Recreation Director Tracy Burnett met with Chatham's Assistant County Manager Paul Spruill to outline possible approaches for moving the County toward steps to negotiating a long term lease for the ATT with the NC DOT. At the July 15th Commisssioner's work session, Burnett and Bussey briefed the Commissioners on ATT progress in Wake and Durham counties and outlined major items needing the Commissioner's attention over the next year, including the long term lease with NC DOT and possible partnering with the Town of Cary on ATT development in the Amberly area. Al Capehart, of NC Rail-Trails and longtime trail advocate, also spoke before the Commissioners. The briefing was well received and the Commissioners voted to have the County Attorney start negotiating a long term term lease with NCDOT. In the near future TRTC will discuss possible grant applications and other fund raising strategies to help develop the Chatham section. Since Chatham has no major funds reserved for ATT development in the current Fiscal Year, the Commissioner's actions over the next few months will involve decisions on capital improvements for the fiscal year starting in July 2003.

News from 2001

The Chatham County Commissioners voted in March 2001 to utilize county Travel and Tourism Funds to pay for a Master Plan of the ATT in Chatham County. Development of this Master Plan was done by the NCSU Department of Landscape Architecture. Presentations of the draft recommendations were made in July, and the final report was completed in October. The NCSU team which developed the Master Plan presented it to the Chatham Commissioners on December 10th. Our thanks go to Tracy Burnett of the County Rec. Dept., Asst. County Manager Paul Spruill, County Manager Charles Horne, Neha Shah, County Director of Travel and Tourism, the Chatham County Commissioners, and the Chatham Trails Committee for making this happen. Sometime in 2002 we hope the Chatham Commissioners to take up the issue of approving the ATT as a project in Chatham County and negotiating a lease with the NC DOT. County budgeting and serious fund raising by TRTC cannot go forward until these 2 critical steps are completed.

In November 2000, the Chatham Trails Committee was awarded a $5,000 Adopt-A-Trail grant for traffic control devices from the NC Division of Parks & Recreation. These funds will be used for gates and bollards to go on the ATT at road intersections to prevent unauthorized motor vehicle access. This should help in litter control and provide better security and privacy for adjacent property owners. As discussed above, the two Chatham bridges are being evaluated as part of the engineering study funded by TRTC and managed by Wake Parks & Rec. On January 16th 2000, TRTC and the Chatham Trails Committee initiated work to clear overgrown brush from the Weaver Creek Trail. This is an old trail on the shores of Jordan Lake that has been out of use for years and the January work day began efforts to re-open it for hiking. Good progress on trail clearing was made and over 1 mile has been rebuilt. Additional workdays were held in May, July and August 2000 and again during the Summer of 2001. The Committee is working to get a grant funded Kiosk built at the trailhead. The trailhead is located off Pea Ridge Rd. (SR 1972) near the intersection with Lower Thrift Rd. To reach the trailhead take SR 1008 south from Wilsonville (at US 64) about 3 miles, turn right on Pea Ridge and look for Lower Thrift about 0.8 miles on the left.

For more information on the ATT and other Chatham trails, please contact either Liz Hayes at hayes@ncsc.org or Bill Bussey at billbus@gte.net.

Return to News page