Woodie lands seat on Heritage area board

Governor Mike Easley has appointed Scottville resident Patrick Woodie to the Blue Ridge Heritage Area Management Entity Board.

There are a total of 23 counties named in the designation, including Alleghany. Other counties in the heritage area are Ashe, Watauga, Wilkes, Surry, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Hay-wood, Henderson, Jackson, Mc-Dowell, Macon, Madison, Mit-chell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylvania, Yadkin and Yancey. "It's a great honor," said Woodie. "The heritage areas are something that I am very familiar with since the New River was named an American Heritage River."

Woodie said that several of the nation's other heritage rivers are also accompanied by National Heritage Area designations.

"What this means is that the western counties that are part of this national heritage area will have $10 million dollars in federal funding available, which must be matched by $10 million non-federal dollars," said Woodie. The non-federal dollars may be state, local or private funds, he noted.

"This is really an economic development effort that will focus on the arts, crafts, food and music traditions of northwest North Carolina," he said. "We will definitely be looking to build on our tourism and hospitality areas as well as helping our artists and craftsmen." Woodie said it was an honor to be appointed by the governor. "He had three appointments to this commission and it was very much an honor to be even considered, let alone appointed," Woodie said.

Currently, $750,000 in federal funding is available for the first year of the designation.

The group's next meeting will held in Asheville on Dec. 16. "We will be adopting a budget at that meeting," said Woodie.

Get the rest of this article in this week's issue of the Alleghany News! Back