News

Charter school, city and county are denied parks grants

By Bill Moss, Published: October 15, 2019

A creative partnership of the town of Fletcher, a charter school and land conservancy came up empty in a quest for a state parks grant. Henderson County and the city of Hendersonville, which also applied for state Parks & Recreation Trust Fund grant in the 2019 funding cycle, also failed to receive money.

Fernleaf Community Charter School and Conserving Carolina partnered with the Fletcher Town Council to apply for a $400,000 PARTF matching grant for an ambitious plan that included the purchase of a mountainous 93-acre tract of land from Old Hendersonville Road to Howard Gap Road.

The school, conservancy and the town had agreed to divide the land, with 35 acres devoted to Fernleaf campus expansion and 58 acres for the public park. The school has the land under option to buy at a price of $1.25 million, closing in February 2020. Fernleaf plans to use the land to add school buildings totaling 40,000 square feet to accommodate 608 students when it grows to its planned capacity of K-12. Consultants had sketched out plans for a 40-space paved parking lot at the trailhead off Old Hendersonville Road, a picnic shelter and a 1.7-mile network of trails peaking at the Grand Overlook, which Conserving Carolina director Kieran Roe descibed as "the Jump Off Park for Fletcher."

Fletcher Mayor Rod Whiteside told fellow mayors and county commissioners of the grant decision Tuesday during the quarterly meeting of the Local Government Committee for Cooperative Action.

"Unfortunately that PARTF grant was denied but we certainly hope it will be resubmitted at a later date," he said. In reports it submitted to the Fletcher Town Council last April, Fernleaf said money for the property acquisition would also include $210,000 from Conserving Carolina and $200,000 from a bargain-price contribution. Park land improvements costing $750,000 would be paid by a $450,000 loan and $300,000 donation shared by Fernleaf and the land conservancy.

Henderson County applied for a $500,000 grant to relocate the segment of the Oklawaha Greenway along Mud Creek near Jackson Park because that stretch is often submerged by floodwaters. The Hendersonville City Council had authorized a PARTF grant application for $341,800 for a proposed greenway along Clear Creek from Carolina Village to the northern terminus of the Oklawaha Greenway.

Among nearby communities, Transylvania County won a $235,000 grant for work at Brevard Community Park and Rutherfordton won a $350,000 grant for Kiwanis Park.

The PARTF board in August awarded 14 grants totaling $4.5 million, including three grants of $500,000 each — two of them for parks on the coast. The total was far less than it should have been, state Rep. Chuck McGrady said. The budget adopted by the Legislature and vetoed by Gov. Roy Cooper included an additional $11.4 million over two years.

"The PARTF board can meet whenever it meets," he said. "If it knew it got more money it could either take up additional funding requests or people could resubmit." 

The disappointing news on the PARTF grants is one example of funding that's been held hostage by the political standoff over the budget.

“A lot of things are hung up and this is the first time" it's been visible in his district, McGrady said. "I’ve got two of my local governments saying, ‘Hey, we didn’t get these grants.’ My response is I got a lot more money in those two pots and because of the other issues (between legislative leaders and Cooper), they’re not getting funded. The governor has no problem with PARTF and cleanwater funds but they’re caught up in these bigger issues.”