Thread Trail Governing Board awards grants to CLC, Lancaster County totaling $150,369

Funding will help complete the trail at our Buffalo Creek Preserve in Cabarrus County.

The Carolina Thread Trail Governing Board awarded two implementation grants, totaling $150,369, for community projects along the Carolina Thread Trail (The Thread). Implementation grants provide funding to communities to assist with trail corridor planning, land acquisition and construction of trails. The grant award amount, community information and the use of the grants follow:

Catawba Lands Conservancy – $40,000 (Cabarrus County)
Funds awarded to CLC will be used to complete a 1.5 mile segment of natural surface trail and construct a gravel parking lot in Mt. Pleasant on the Buffalo Creek Preserve. This segment of The Thread will connect to the largest residential neighborhood in Mt. Pleasant and will provide an important future cross-county connection into Stanly County. The Buffalo Creek Preserve, a 393-acre natural area, was donated to CLC in 2011. Portions of the trail have already been built by The Thread’s volunteers, including groups from Duke Energy, Husqvarna, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Together, these volunteers donated more than 500 hours to design, clear and construct approximately 1/4-mile of this trail. This trail is expected to be completed in the spring of 2013.

Lancaster County – $110,369
Grant money awarded to Lancaster County will be used to fund the construction of a new 3.5-mile natural surface trail along 12 Mile Creek in the panhandle of Lancaster County. Once constructed, trail access will be available via a county park along Highway 521 and terminate at the Lancaster/Union county line in the general vicinity of Waxhaw. This trail will provide significant community and cross-county connections. It will be a community amenity within a new housing development that is anticipated to include more than 2,000 homes. On a regional level, this trail could be the first cross-county and cross-state connection for The Thread.

These grants are awarded as part of The Thread’s quarterly implementation grant cycle. Awards from The Thread help communities build trails that will add to the 113 miles of trails that are currently open to the public throughout The Thread’s 15-county region. Both Lancaster and Cabarrus counties have adopted county-wide master plans, making the cities and towns within those counties eligible for grant funding from The Thread.

To date, The Thread has awarded more than $6.6 million in catalytic grants to communities and trail projects that are a part of The Thread. In addition to privately funded grants, these awards include grants from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund for land acquisition.

Applications for the 2013 implementation grant cycle are due January 4, April 5, August 9 and October 18, 2013. For more information, visit carolinathreadtrail.org or contact Carolina Thread Trail Grants and Community Coordinator Randi Gates at 704-376-2556 x217 or randi@carolinathreadtrail.org.