by Lance Martin, Daily Herald Senior Staff Writer
ROANOKE RAPIDS — Eroding banks at three city parks will be improved over the next several months as a nearly $1 million stream restoration project begins next month.
The improvements at Rochelle, Long and Smith parks will be funded through a $670,000 N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant. The city will provide $150,000 in in-kind services for the projects, Parks and Recreation Director Chris Wicker said yesterday. That means while the city will not contribute any money to the projects, it will contribute $150,000 worth of work.
The projects are expected to be completed in the fall and will mean safer, more environmentally sound parks, Wicker said.
Rochelle Park is probably in the most dire need of restoration as erosion in the last 10 years has created 10-to 15-feet vertical banks making it unsafe for children to play nearby. “A child could fall in and no one could hear him,” Wicker said.
What happens during the restoration project is the stream will be widened creating banks, which are between 3- and 4-feet deep.
Several trees in the park may have to go, Wicker said. Originally, 23-trees were slated to be cut down. After residents in the park voiced concerns, less than 10-trees will be cut down. “That’s a whole lot better than 20.”
The trees marked for cutting are those where the root structures would be weakened by the widening and restoration project, which will be done by Baker Engineering. “We were glad to have folks concerned about the trees,” Wicker said. “It shows they value their parks.”
The project includes replanting with vegetation to create a more natural state, Wicker said, and moving playground areas outside the restored stream areas.
Plans also call for stream restoration projects at Long and Smith parks, Wicker said, with Long being the second most critical project behind the Rochelle project. At Long Park, areas of unstable high banks will be re-graded and new vegetation will be planted. A new bridge will be placed at the park and the old one will be taken to Rochelle Park.
Besides aesthetics, there are several other benefits resulting from the projects, Baker Engineering says in documents describing the work. They include nutrient and sediment removal, increased dissolved oxygen concentrations and stream bank stability.
Wicker is thankful the city received the trust fund money, which Four Rivers Rural Conservation Development applied for on behalf of the city. “The city didn’t have the money to solve these issues. It’s a safety issue, it helps water quality and it protects the environment.”
jhofficial
I got an idea; how about spend $5.00 on some gas and cut the grass at the baseball field!!!!!
Are better yet spend some money and build or repair some fields so they wouldn't be safety hazards.
Kestrel
How about they quit filling in Chockoyotte Creek?
jhofficial
Kestrel wrote:
How about they quit filling in Chockoyotte Creek?
What are they messing up over there?
THE CURE
jhofficial wrote:
I got an idea; how about spend $5.00 on some gas and cut the grass at the baseball field!!!!!
Are better yet spend some money and build or repair some fields so they wouldn't be safety hazards.
Be a good citizen and crank up your lawnmower and cut it.
jhofficial
THE CURE wrote:
jhofficial wrote:
I got an idea; how about spend $5.00 on some gas and cut the grass at the baseball field!!!!!
Are better yet spend some money and build or repair some fields so they wouldn't be safety hazards.
Be a good citizen and crank up your lawnmower and cut it.
Lets see if I can follow your so-called logic.
First I should pay for the work to be done, but go and do it myself?
OK lets see if this makes sense. I should go outside tell the guy I'm paying to pressure wash my house and deck to come sit inside in the AC and surf around on the computer while I wash the deck? Yep makes sense to me. let me go get him. See you guys in a few hours.
THE CURE
Anything to get you off the couch and away from the soap operas jh.
Kestrel
jhofficial wrote:
Kestrel wrote:
How about they quit filling in Chockoyotte Creek?
What are they messing up over there?
They are developing up to the edge of it with Gregory Drive and the self storage place on Old Farm Road extension was putting some junk mighty close to it. Might not violate the law, but doesn't look good.
