By Dave Russell
The funding of the Bridge Park makeover came up in Sylva’s town board meeting last week, as a grant the town was hoping for fell through.
Sylva, with the help of Southwestern Commission staff, applied for a Rural Transformation grant from the state for the upgrades, but the application failed.
The makeover of the park, which would clean water heading into Scotts Creek and provide park users with more amenities, has a $758,357 price tag, town Manager Paige Dowling told Sylva’s town board last week.
The board dedicated $436,297 to the project last November, leaving a shortfall of $343,357.
The failure to receive the grant left town officials wondering how to pay for the project.
The plan would offer new amenities for residents, but Scotts Creek and local trout would see some benefits as well.
The concept was laid out in 2019 when Equinox Environmental presented the town with a plan: “Concept A includes 57 parking spaces, two of which are ADA-accessible spaces, with a one-way traffic flow. Parallel spaces are given to accommodate parking for city work trucks observed on-site. The bioretention area is a strong, central feature with an outfall into a quiet rain garden in the northeast corner of the space.
One of the bioretention areas would divide the newly paved parking lot on the east side of the park, currently a gravel lot. Kids wanting to get wet and muddy can find their way down to the water’s edge more easily once the improved creek access is complete.”
Dowling presented the board with two options for paying for the project – use some of the town’s remaining American Recovery Plan Act funds (about $436,000), or apply for other funding sources, such as grants.
David Nestler, sitting in the mayor’s seat for a recovering Mayor Lynda Sossamon, suggested the town seek funds from the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority.
The town already is looking for a TDA grant for repairs to the Poteet Park restrooms.
The Bridge Park request looks promising, Dowling told the board.
“I talked to (TDA Director Nick Breedlove) today and he felt like Bridge Park was a really good fit for it because it tied in a lot of elements, like fishing and tourism and it’s where we have our outdoor events and long-term it cleans up the creek.
“I told Nick how short we were, and he felt like that is a project they would consider at that threshold. The only thing is that their grant cycle now ends in June. It would go before the TDA board in June and the county commissioners in July or August, which is a delay from when we started talking about this, but we have Greening Up the Mountains and then concerts going on also, and other projects.”
Ideally, the work would start at the conclusion of the Pottery Festival in November.
Board member Greg McPherson asked about taking on Bridge Park and Allen Street at the same time.
“If we could stagger them, that would be preferable,” Public Works Director Jake Scott said. “And since it is the only project that is truly shovel-ready, if the reimbursement is on the table I think that would be a great way to proceed, but that is taking a gamble with our ARPA funds. The question is, ‘Would you be willing to cash out the ARPA funds on just one project?’”
“Yeah,” Board member Ben Guiney said.
Nestler made a suggestion to shelve the Poteet Park restroom repair grant and apply only for the Bridge Park project.
The makeover would take 10 weeks at most, Scott said
Nestler hoped the board would hang on to its ARPA funds, he said.
Nestler made a motion to apply for a $400,000 TDA grant to use for the Bridge Park project, and it was approved unanimously.
