Town awarded $200,000 Clean Water Trust Fund grant

The Town of Sparta has been awarded a $200,000 Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant. While the funds have been awarded, they have not been encumbered at this time, subject to what David Isner with the Alleghany office of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service referred to as a "state budget situation."

Town Manager Bryan Edwards later clarified that the town's funds were being held by the state and that the timing of the release of those funds is still an unknown.

The funds will be used for planning and right-of-way acquisitions for a pedestrian plan and Greenway project.

Isner made the announcement during a March 30 joint meeting of the Alleghany County Commission and the Sparta Town Council. Isner noted that the town council's pedestrian plan that was created in May 2006 and the Greenway plan along Bledsoe Creek off the Sparta Parkway are projects that go hand-in-hand. The county also is working to develop a soccer field and other amenities along Bledsoe Creek in the same area.

He continued, "The intention is to try to get board of commissioners support for moving forward with this project, specifically components of the pedestrian plan as well as the Greenway project. Certainly before going to the public and getting input on it, both town council and the board of commissioners should be up to speed on it, so to speak."

Offering a brief history, Isner reported the scope of the pedestrian plan "came about as an identification of deficiencies in pedestrian travel, pedestrian transportation in the town of Sparta (and) inadequate sidewalk safety issues that support pedestrian travel from the schools to downtown. Basically, that plan involved (doing) some identification of needs and deficiencies from a safety standpoint and DOT (the Department of Transportation) helped identify those through the funding for this plan and the High Country Council of Governments actually did the planned preparation."

Per a 2000 Alleghany County and Town of Sparta land development plan, three issues were mentioned. These included maintaining downtown Sparta as a vital economic component of the county, utilizing the economy of the county to maintain Sparta as Alleghany County's service center by maintaining a compact and unique community by limiting and discouraging urban sprawl and directing water and sewer services and transportation improvements accordingly.

"Also mentioned in this plan…was the parks and recreation plan that was subsequently developed and implemented," commented Isner. "Now you have a parks and recreation director. There's been much progress in both these plans." Isner went on to say, "Moving to an offshoot of the pedestrian plan is the Greenway Trail."