Article in the JP about the Greenway
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~glitter and glamour~
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Posted 9:23 pm, 04/17/2018
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"for the public good."
When maybe less than .005% of the county's population uses it?
Ya'll are going to keep screwing farmers over and you're going to wake up one day wondering why there's no food.
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Wandering Homebody
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Posted 9:13 pm, 04/17/2018
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Don't get me wrong, because I love the Greenway and think it's one of the best things in Wilkes County. I use it several times a week. But it's his land and he should have say if he wants to give an easement.
They do not need condemn his land just to get an easement for a non profit organization to put their Greenway. To me this would be a total abuse of authority.
We might not like his decision, but it's his land not ours. I don't want to see our local goverments start taking property from people using their loose definition of "for the public good".
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Wandering Homebody
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Posted 9:00 pm, 04/17/2018
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‘Missing link’
Jule Hubbard
The Wilkesboro Town Council discussed a missing link in the Yadkin River Greenway during a recent work session.
The Yadkin River Greenway Council “lacks one landowner having easements to connect all of the greenway” in and near Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro, said Wilkesboro Councilman Gary Johnson during the council’s April 9 work session.
Johnson, a member of the nonprofit greenway council, was referring to easements still needed from Johnny Brown on adjoining hayland parcels of 63.9 and 27.5 acres.
The Brown property extends along the south side of the Yadkin River about half a mile. It’s on either side of Curtis Bridge Road, but mostly is downstream from the road.
Johnson said with the easements on the Brown property, the greenway could be connected from the Wilkes Family YMCA in Wilkesboro to North Wilkesboro’s Smoot Park, a distance of about five miles.
The Brown property adjoins but isn’t within the town limits of Wilkesboro or North Wilkesboro, like some other nearby Yadkin River bottomland on both sides of the river. Johnson said the Brown property therefore is under purview of Wilkes County government.
He asked if Wilkesboro Town Manager Ken Noland and North Wilkesboro Town Manager Larry South should go before county officials “and request some actions toward getting assistance” to secure easements for the greenway on the Brown property.
Noland said he would be glad to do that if directed, but added that legwork such as securing greenway easements has been handled by the greenway council, “and the town has just picked it up” to assist with construction.
Mayor Mike Inscore asked Johnson if greenway council representatives have brought the matter before county officials.
Johnson said the greenway council hasn’t taken it to county officials, but it has been to Brown “and he has denied everything.”
Inscore said it would be presumptuous of officials of the two towns to bring the matter to county officials before the greenway council has done so.
When Johnson said Brown agreed to give a water line easement on the property in question for the proposed W. Kerr Scott Reservoir raw water intake project, Noland said it was North Wilkesboro officials who secured that.
Noland said he asked Brown to allow Wilkesboro an easement for a sewer line and was denied.
Inscore said, “We will never be able to get anything from him (Brown) because of the bridge we burned and I was on the board (now council) when we burned that bridge.”
Inscore was referring to a decision by Wilkesboro’s governing body that kept Brown’s father, the late Mack Brown of Watauga County, from continuing to have his beef cattle on the property in question. The Wilkesboro governing body’s decision resulted from residents of the Ken Acres neighborhood and other nearby areas complaining about the cattle.
Noland said Wilkesboro officials actually didn’t have this authority because the Brown property wasn’t in the town limits then, as is the case now.
Inscore said it was more a matter of denying access to the property with farm equipment via a private road off Woodland Boulevard that had been used in the past.
Johnson said Wilkes County officials could secure an easement for the greenway by condemning the property.
“Lots of luck,” responded Inscore with a chuckle indicating good-natured sarcasm.
Johnson asked what other options exist.
Noland responded, “You’re right. We’re very limited in our options without him (Brown) being willing, but the county does have the option to condemn property for public good�"and this would be for public good.”
Noland added, “I wouldn’t see it being done this election cycle.”
Johnson responded, “I’m not expecting it to be done in my lifetime.”
Noland said, “We all want it done, but we either do it that way (condemnation) or we come up with a big jagged loop to wrap around another way that costs five times as much money.”
Council member Russ Ferree asked if it’s correct that no money has ever been spent to secure easements for the greenway.
Ferree, who is an attorney, said he didn’t think a jury would award a significant amount of money to Brown for a greenway easement if it was condemned for that purpose because the land can’t be used for much.
Noland said the towns have never spent money to secure greenway easements and Johnson said the same is true for the greenway council.
Noland said he couldn’t remember if the water line easement held by the Town of North Wilkesboro for the proposed W. Kerr Scott Reservoir intake crosses the Brown property, but if it does, North Wilkesboro officials could seek an amendment to the easement allowing the greenway.
Johnson said that when Brown granted an easement for the water line, he included a statement saying the easement couldn’t be used for the greenway.
Noland said he believed he remembered that and added, “That’s what we’re up against.”
Johnson said he has visited Johnny Brown three time to seek a greenway easement and other people have visited him also. “He finally said don’t come back.”
The western leg (upstream end) of the greenway is along the south side of the Yadkin from the YMCA to where Moravian Creek enters the river, just upstream from the U.S. 421 bridge over the Yadkin. An intersecting leg of the greenway up Moravian Creek to Wilkes Community recently was completed.
The eastern leg (downstream end) of the greenway goes along the north side of the Yadkin from Smoot Park to the Wellness Center at West Park, including a connector under construction from Memorial Park to the Yadkin River bridge between the Wilkesboros.
A leg of the greenway also goes up the west side of Reddies River, crosses the Reddies on the D Street Bridge and then goes along 13th Street and up the full length of the old gravel Jefferson Turnpike.
There are two additional greenway legs.
One crosses the Yadkin on the bridge between the Wilkesboros and goes downstream along the south side of the Yadkin to the mouth of Cub Creek. There are plans to extend this leg up the west side of Cub Creek to Wilkesboro’s Cub Creek Park.
A leg also crosses the Yadkin River on a pedestrian bridge placed on the the site of a late 19th century and early 20th century bridge and goes up the related old roadbed to downtown Wilkesboro.
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mssassy
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Posted 8:38 pm, 04/17/2018
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Could not find the article on the JP website.
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Firty Firty
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Posted 8:19 pm, 04/17/2018
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Looks like that Johnny Brown still is pissed off because his family couldn't`t graze cattle in the large field off Curtis Bridge Rd. Jesus...talk about holding a grudge. After 20 years, how about being adult and look beyond your own small life and do something for the greater good.Quit being such a jerk. I say give him one more opportunity and then use the power that the county has and condemn it.
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