Trail System to Get Funds

Wednesday, August 5, 2009
By DEBBIE HALL - Bulletin Staff Writer

Fifth District U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello on Tuesday announced that $300,000 in federal funding has been approved to help build a 4.5-mile section of trail known as the Dick & Willie Passage in Henry County/Martinsville.

The Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) Martinsville-Henry County Rivers & Trails Group also received $8,095 from The Harvest Foundation to help promote the Uptown Spur Trail, which will provide access to the Dick & Willie Passage. Those funds are earmarked to enhance rest areas and provide other amenities “that will help make the Uptown Spur Trail even more inviting and accessible,” according to a news release from Harvest.

Henry County Administrator Benny Summerlin said engineers estimate it will cost about $950,000 to build the 4.5-mile Dick & Willie Passage, which will run 1.5 miles to Mulberry Creek in one direction off the uptown trail and about 3 miles to a location near Commonwealth Boulevard and U.S. 220 off the other end of the trail.

About 50 residents gathered for Perriello’s announcement at a gazebo decorated like a rail car on the trail at Franklin Street. Many joined Perriello, D-Albemarle County, as he biked on the trail to its end at Pine Street before walking a portion of what will be the new Dick & Willie Passage.

Speaking near the building that once housed the former Martinsville-Henry County Rescue Squad, Perriello said the 4.5-mile project will be a welcome addition to the existing 14 miles of trails available in the Smith River Trail System.

It not only will add to the quality of life by providing recreation and promoting a healthy lifestyle, but it also will become a destination for outdoor enthusiasts, the congressman said.
The trail project is a cooperative effort with Martinsville, The Harvest Foundation, DRBA and others, Summerlin said.

Tapping leftover funds from an enhancement project, Martinsville is contributing $300,000 to the project, according to Summerlin and City Manager Clarence Monday.
The DRBA will install signs along the trail, Summerlin said.

“This is an amazing partnership. I’ve never seen anything like it before,” said Allyson Rothrock, executive director of The Harvest Foundation. When coordinating Tuesday’s event, she said everyone contacted to help was cooperative.

Perriello said the broad community support for the project did not go unnoticed by members of Congress. It “is a sign of how much this means to the community.”

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is reviewing 90 percent of the plans for the new trail, which will feature a 10-foot-wide paved path, Summerlin said. He expects the project will be ready to go out for bids in October or November.

The DRBA will use historical information discovered during deed searches to coordinate the interpretive signs, Summerlin said.

“We are only the second owner of this right-of-way since 1880,” Summerlin said. “There is a lot of neat stuff to be learned” along the trail slated to open next spring.

When completed, the Smith River Trail System will follow the 45-mile corridor of the Smith River from the base of Philpott Dam to the Dan River in Eden, N.C., according to a release from the trails group.

It will include four trail heads, Summerlin said of locations at Commonwealth Boulevard/U.S. 220, Liberty Street, the former Prillaman Chemical Co. and an overlook at Mulberry Creek.
The site on Liberty Street will have permanent rest room facilities located near the former Martinsville-Henry County Rescue Squad Building, Summerlin said.

The trail system also will bridge two congressional districts — the 9th and the 5th, Summerlin said. The route will meander along the Smith River, from Philpott Dam through areas of Bassett, Fieldale and Martinsville to the Smith River Sports Complex. Funding is not yet available for some portions of the project, Summerlin said. The trail system also includes the 75-acre Richard P. Gravely Jr. Nature Preserve, the county’s first interpretive park.

When completed, residents and visitors can use the trails to travel “from the soccer complex to Fieldale. Whether walking or biking, it will give families the opportunity” to spend quality time together, Monday said.

DRBA Gear Swap

Please join the Dan River Basin Association at the first annual DRBA Gear Swap! Bring your unused canoes, kayaks, bicycles, and gear for paddling, hiking, cycling, and fishing to sell and trade. You know your spouse has been begging you to clean out the garage! Looking for your first canoe or kayak? A second-hand boat is a perfect way to inexpensively get into the sport of paddling. You'll find canoes, kayaks, bicycles, paddles, dry bags, books & guides, PDFs, splash wear, backpacks, camping gear, car racks, fishing gear, and more! DRBA Gear Swap Sunday, September 6th from 2-6 p.m. North Bassett River Access 271 Trenthill Drive Bassett, VA There is no charge to come browse and buy. If you would like to sell or trade items, booth spaces are available for $10 each. Proceeds from this booth charge will benefit development of the Smith River Trail System. Special membership perk: There is no booth charge for DRBA members!

To sign up for a booth or for more information, please contact Jennifer Doss at 276-634-2545.
Email:
jdoss@danriver.org

Southwestern Piedmont Master Naturalist Class

The 2009 Southwestern Piedmont Master Naturalist Class is now forming. The basic training course is a series of natural history related classes (rocks, weather, birds, trees, just to name a few) that will be held on Tuesday evenings from 6:00-8:00 at the museum with a few Saturday field trips too. The tuition fee for the training course is $100.00 which will cover class materials and expenses. Contact Christy Deatherage for an application at (276) 634-4187 ; they are due August 7th. The first class will be August 18th and is an introduction to the Master Naturalist program.

This program is a wonderful opportunity for community members that share interests and volunteers to learn, share, and work together. For example, last year SPMN partnered with Dan River Basin Association, Master Gardeners, and the museum to produce a Virginia Southwestern Piedmont pocket naturalist guide. The chapter has also partnered with Piedmont Arts Association, City of Martinsville, the museum, and Master Gardeners to work on the Piedmont Art and Natural History Garden.

Submitted by: Christy Deatherage

Kayaking Class

It's coming! Get ready for Smith River Fest 2009!

In preparation of this year's event, a new outfitter to our area, Smith River Adventure Outfitters will offer an beginner kayak class to help paddlers improve their skills on the river.

The class will be held on August 29th from 12:00 pm-4:00 pm at the Beaver Creek Reservoir in Collinsville. The course fee is $40.

Deadline to register for the classes is August 19th. Contact drba.va@danriver.org or 276-634-2545 to register. Class Sponsored by: Dan River Basin Association, Henry County Parks & Recreation, and Martinsville Leisure Services.

New Environmental Discussion Series

“If you don’t know where you are,” Wendell Berry once said, “you don’t know who you are.” That is at the heart of a new environmental literature discussion series that the Dan River Basin Association (DRBA) is hosting in partnership with The Spencer-Penn Centre. “We’ll be taking a look at a wide variety of literature,” says Jenny Edwards, DRBA’s Virginia Program Manager, “and how those stories can help us explore the meaning of ‘place’ and our responsibility to the natural environment in the communities of the Dan River Basin.”

The series coincides with the release of An Insider’s Guide to the Dan River in North Carolina and Virginia. Made possible by Golden LEAF Foundation with additional support from the Virginia Environmental Endowment, the new guide highlights some of basin’s most stunning natural features and interesting communities. “That’s part of what we want to explore in our discussions,” according to Edwards, “those places in the Dan River Basin that have a strong ‘sense of place,’ and why that’s so.”

Edwards says The Spencer-Penn Centre is a great example of what is meant by “sense of place.” Once the hub of Spencer, Virginia as the town’s only school, the building is now a unique and vibrant center for the arts, special events, and programs like this one. “Just walking into this beautifully restored historic building,” Edwards says, “you definitely feel a sense of place.”
Beginning August 25, the discussion group will meet in The Spencer-Penn Centre library on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 6 pm to 7 pm, and perhaps going a bit later in the evening if the conversation is lively. WLOE/WMYN 1490 AM has begun featuring the readings on the “Community Accents” program each month on the third Thursday from 8:30 – 9:00 am and again in a rebroadcast from 6:30 – 7:00 pm. Plans are in the works to podcast the radio program as well.

The discussion group is open to everyone, but pre-registration is required and limited to 10 participants. A light dinner will be served. DRBA will send the readings well in advance of the discussion meetings or they may be picked up at Spencer-Penn after the first Tuesday of each month.

The first readings, slated for August, will come from selected chapters of Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a White Cracker Childhood, and Lucy Lippard’s The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society.” Born in 1962, Ray is a leading environmental writer, spokesperson and activist. In Ecology of a Cracker Childhood she recounts experiences of growing up in a family that struggled to make ends meet, and how her family history and personal identity is tied to the piney woods of southern Georgia. Ecology has won the American Book Award, the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and the Southern Environmental Law Center Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment. Lippard’s book, Lure of the Local, explores how unique characteristics of the built and natural environment give rise to a “sense of place.”

The discussion group will probe questions such as: what is the difference between living on the land and dwelling in it? How do we understand the land’s rhythms, potential, limits? Do people who develop an intimacy with a place over time tend to accept responsibility for it? If not, then why is that so and how might that be different from place to place? What is meant by “placeless places”—those landscapes such as strip malls, big box stores, chain restaurants, that could be dropped anywhere on the American landscape?

Registration for the program is free and may be made by calling Jenny Edwards at (276) 340-2462 or by email at jedwards@danriver.org. The program is made possible by support from the Virginia Environmental Endowment, WLOE/WMYN, The Spencer-Penn Centre and DRBA.