Go to the homepage for the Sylva Herald and Ruralite

Trail now links Black Rock to parkway

By Lynn Hotaling
Local hikers can now walk from Fisher Creek near Sylva to Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway via a clearly marked trail.

A formal agreement with the parkway that will allow Sylva's Pinnacle Park Trail Foundation to use a trail across the scenic highway as part of Pinnacle's trail system is expected to be in place soon, said Sylva attorney Jay Coward, chairman of the Pinnacle Foundation.

Hikers bound for Waterrock Knob can follow the purple and gold markings from Pinnacle Park's parking lot on Fisher Creek Road up the east prong of Fisher Creek, across Black Rock and on to Waterrock, Coward said. Informational signs that list Waterrock Knob as a potential hiking destination will not be placed in Pinnacle's parking area until the formal agreement is signed, he said.

After leaving Pinnacle Park, which was established by the town of Sylva on property used for years to supply municipal drinking water, the trail to Waterrock crosses the 1,500-acre Krauss/Stansbury tract purchased in 1997 by the Nature Conservancy. One reason the Nature Conservancy pursued the tract is that it links Sylva's park with the parkway.

Negotiations are proceeding between the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Park Service that would allow the conservation group to donate the Krauss/Stansbury tract to the park service as an addition to the Blue Ridge Parkway, Coward said. The result would make Pinnacle Park adjacent to the parkway, he said.

A handicapped accessible trail at the park is virtually complete, Coward told members of Sylva's town board last Thursday (Dec. 14). A map of the accessible trail, drawn by Western Carolina University students under the direction of Professor Ginny Peterson, is now available and will be displayed at the Pinnacle parking area, Coward said. The trail group plans a workday on some of the higher trail sections Dec. 30 and 31, Coward said, and will try to flag a new trail to Black Rock.

Pinnacle's Foundation has received a $5,000 grant from the Southwestern North Carolina Resource Conservation and Development Council, Coward told Sylva board members. Most of that money will likely be used as matching funds when the group applies for additional grants from Adopt-A-Trail and other funding sources, Coward said.

Also Thursday:

  • Mayor Brenda Oliver promised to check into the feasibility of adding street lights on Business 23 toward Harris Regional Hospital. The request came from Southwestern Seamless Guttering owner Mona Hooper.

  • Board members approved a resolution that commits the board to replacement of $688,000 taken from its Urban Development Action Grant Funds to complete repair and renovation of the town-owned swimming pool. When board members agreed to finance the project with UDAG funds, they stipulated some sort of agreement be drawn to encourage replacement of the funds, which are earmarked for economic development within town limits.

    Sylva received a $2.75 million UDAG grant in 1982. The initial grant money was loaned to Jackson Paper in order to refurbish and reopen the former Mead plant. Current UDAG funds controlled by the town are the result of the repayment of Jackson Paper's loan.

    In addition to funding the swimming pool repairs, UDAG funds paid for the downtown Streetscape project and are used to fund the town's revolving loan program. The town of Sylva's yearly contributions to SPIR and the Jackson County Economic Development Commission also come from UDAG money. After paying the bills for the swimming pool project, UDAG funds will total about $600,000, said town administrator Tommy Thompson.

  • After Alvin Stiles was unanimously reappointed to the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority board, town board member Maurice Moody suggested the town board should give its TWSA board appointees more guidance "to make sure they understand what we as a town want to see accomplished."

  • Oliver said the town needs to establish a Greenways committee to work with the recently-formed county Greenways Commission. Three members will be named at the board's January meeting.

  • Board members approved resolutions necessary to secure loans of $115,000 to pay for the Sylva Fire Department's new pumper. The board will next meet Thursday, Jan. 4, at 7 p.m.

    • Back to Archive: 12/21/00.