2.0 Discusses Several Topics

On Thursday, August 22, the newly reconstituted Brevard Ecusta Trail Advisory Board – dubbed ETAB 2.0 – discussed the budget, timeline, physical conditions and amenities for the Transylvania County section of the Ecusta Trail.

At a previous city council meeting, council members decided to give ETAB voting authority on a number of measures and slightly changed the composition of the board to increase the representation of agencies focused on economic development and downtown Brevard.

Brevard City Manager Wilson Hooper quickly reviewed the milestones of the railroad line beginning in 1939 when the Ecusta mill opened to the current reconstitution of ETAB.

Hooper said the entire process sped up last summer when the city received two federal grants totaling approximately $45 million for the trail. 

“It was like the dog catching the car. We didn’t quite know what to do with it,” said Hooper of when the city received the grants last summer.

He said city council soon realized the trail would be “transformational for our community” and council wanted some outside guidance from people with expertise on various topics and credibility in the community.

“That’s why you all were chosen,” he said to the ETAB members.

City council earlier this summer also decided to relegate certain decisions to city staff, ETAB and the council itself.

“You can see our decision bucket is quite full,” said Hooper of ETAB’s responsibilities. 

Hooper focused his presentation on the budget, timeline and physical conditions.

“In my opinion, they are the three biggest variables in the equation,” he said, adding that compromises will have to be made.

Hooper noted that the Brevard/Transylvania County phase of the project would now be the second phase with Henderson County’s Ecusta West section being the third phase of the project. Until recently, it was thought the Brevard/Transylvania County phase would be last phase completed, following the Henderson County’s Ecusta East section, which should open in December, and the Ecusta West section from Horse Shoe to the county line.

Hooper said there are five significant funding sources for the Ecusta Trail, including $4.5 million from Friends of Ecusta Trail (FOET). The biggest sources of money are the two federal grants – RAISE and NSFLTP. Those funds, however, have to be used on the trail or areas immediately adjacent to the trail. Hooper said those federal funds cannot be used to extend the trail into downtown Brevard.

Hooper also said that all grants are not equal. For example, $23 million of the RAISE grant will go to the Brevard/Transylvania County section. Since the RAISE grant does not require any local matching funds, it is the “cheapest” grant. Henderson County, on the other hand, will have to provide more local funding because the grants primarily used in Henderson County require more local, matching funds.

When the city of Brevard applied for the RAISE grant, it estimated the costs for its section of the Ecusta Trail to be $23,373,900. The 30 percent design estimate projects that cost to be $23,400,000.

“We’re very fortunate,” said Hooper of Brevard receiving the RAISE grant. 

Totaling all of the funding, Hooper said there is more than $50 million for a project estimated to cost in the $40 million range. Even though there is a “little bit of extra money,” the federal grants cannot be used for certain things and the money requiring the lowest amount of local matching funds should be spent first.

Other sources of money are two smaller federal grants, the Transylvania County Tourism Development Authority (TDA) and Friends of Ecusta Trail (FOET). 

Lonnie Watkins of NCDOT and Kristy Staudt of TPD, the firm hired to do the engineering and design, said the 30 percent design was submitted to the state in July and they have received feedback from the state. They said the focus now is more specific regarding bridge replacements and renovations, right-of-way for utilities, placement of the trail within the right-of-way, road crossings, encroachments, the location of bathrooms and parking areas, and numerous other items.

The design and permitting of the second phase should be completed by May of 2026, with construction bids let by June 2026. Construction should begin in July and conclude by the end of 2027.

Staudt said the city would save approximately $1 million by repairing three of the seven trail bridges in this section. 

She added that some of the higher costs would be widening the railroad bed to 12 feet with 3 to 5-foot shoulders. That includes cutting and filling land, grading, paving, constructing retaining walls, and mitigating and avoiding wetlands.

Drainage is another significant cost. TPD is evaluating 42 pipes for possible replacement, with five of them running underneath the proposed trail at the Penrose airport.

Staudt said areas where the trail crosses roads will require signs, pavement markings, signals, crossing lights, etc. Guardrails also will be needed in areas where the trail is close to roads.

Some private property along the trail will also require drainage, driveway modifications, and buffers and fencing. Watkins, for example, said the airport owners have requested a fence between their property and the trail.

Even in areas where there are no private structures immediately adjacent to the trail, shade trees, shrubs, fences or other barriers may be needed to delineate the trail right-of-way from adjacent private property so that trail users do not unintentionally go onto private property.

John Ditillo, FOET’s representative on ETAB, asked if there has been a decision as to what to do with people who have encroached on the trail right-of-way by building or landscaping in the trail right-of-way.

“That’s the call you all can make,” said Watkins, who noted that mailboxes, driveways and other structures are in the right-of-way. 

He said that in designing the trail, they have shifted the trail as much as possible to minimize changes to property owners who have encroached on the right-of-way. He said that technically a house in the right-of-way is an “illegal encroachment,” but federal money cannot be used to relocate those houses. 

Aaron Baker, a city council member who also serves as co-chair of ETAB with fellow city council member Mac Morrow, said he would not want to “ever” move a house.

Brevard Mayor Maureen Copelof, who is a non-voting member of ETAB, agreed with Baker and said the NCDOT would be holding a public meeting on Sept. 10 to talk with people along the trail about its impact and the city would follow up to work one-on-one with adjacent property owners.

Hooper said there are a few places along the trail where it might be extremely expensive or negatively impact the trail to accommodate the property owners, so the latter might not receive what they request.

The public open house to view the maps and ask questions will be held from 5-7 p.m. in the Rogow Room of the Transylvania County Library on Tuesday, Sept. 10. (See related announcement.)

ETAB also received information about amenities. Amenities have been grouped into three levels (see related story). Generally, Level One amenities are smaller items such as bike racks, waste receptacles and benches that are often, but not always, covered by federal funds. Level Two amenities include parking and public restrooms, which may or may not be covered by funds. Level Three amenities are larger items such as shelters and overlooks that cannot be paid for with federal funds.

According to Watkins, small shelters along the trail to protect users from the elements may be paid for with federal funds, but larger picnic shelters could not.

Hooper also said ETAB would have to consider issues and amenities that are outside the federal footprint of the Ecusta Trail. This includes the areas near the Pisgah Health Foundation and along Asheville Highway that could provide a seamless link from the Ecusta Trail to the Estatoe Trail to downtown Brevard.

ETAB members also discussed mile markers. Henderson County is leaning toward using the old railroad mile markers, which are not distinctly linked to the terminuses in either Hendersonville or Brevard. Both Baker and Copelof said the city had not been informed of such a decision.

FOET President Mark Tooley said the organization has been trying to facilitate cross-county communication, but that has not been happening.

“They are making decisions that are going to affect this end,” said Tooley.

Baker said using the old railroad numbers would be confusing because it would not start with zero at one end and 20 at the other end. The railroad line itself does not extend to either Main Street in Hendersonville or Brevard. (The Ecusta Trail will connect with the current Estatoe Trail in order to connect with downtown Brevard.)

Near the conclusion of the meeting, ETAB members expressed pride in the fact that various members from the group will be making presentations about the Ecusta Trail at the Great Trails Conference, the NC Bike-Walk Alliance, and North Carolina city managers meeting in the next few months.

While the August 26 meeting for ETAB was canceled, new meetings were scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 5, and Wednesday, Sept. 25.