ELIZABETHTOWN — Brown’s Landing Park might be on a dead-end road, but Eddie Madden says the recreational facility damaged by Hurricane Florence is far from dead.
“Immediately we are in the process of seeking funding from FEMA, for the lockmaster’s house, the restroom and the picnic facilities,” the Elizabethtown town administrator said. “In addition we have made a request for the repair or replacement of the primitive fencing. As soon as the contractor for the Corps of Engineers finishes, our plans are to come in immediately after and start making repairs to the other facilities that we maintain.”
That includes the entire grounds with the exception of the lock and dam.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages the Lock and Dam No. 2 there; the town handles the park.
“We have considerable debris,” he said. “That has to be piled and burned and removed.”
General cleaning and maintenance will be taken care of as the Corps finishes.
“As soon as they finish we will begin immediately,” he said. “This project was supposed to have finished in October of 2018, and now they are saying at best spring of 2019, and more likely summer of 2019.”
If that is the case the town will be pushed back until late summer or early fall for reopening.
“FEMA has proposed to us what they call a pilot project,” he said. “So rather than us receiving funding for repairing things that may get damaged again, that we can use the same amount of money, that we would receive from FEMA, and use it to however we wish, on that site.”
This would give them the chance to not reinvest in things that are not working, and instead use that money to make something else better.
“So for example, if we choose not to put the fencing back, because it is something that occurs every high water event, we can still receive funding for the fence,” he said.
The town is working with its engineering firm to apply for the pilot project program and then use the funding to complete their recreation master plan for the lock and dam.
“We definitely want to put money back into the restrooms and picnic facility,” he said. “We don’t want to put money back into fencing, and we don’t want to put money back into repair of the lockmaster’s house, because it is beyond repair.”
At one time the lockmaster’s house was a residence, and the Corps had leased part of the property to the Navy for training exercises. They had it segregated by fence, to keep the public from accessing that area.
“So almost half of the property has not been accessible to the public in years,” Madden said. “So what we are hoping to do is tear down the lockmaster’s house and tear down the fencing and make the entire park property available to the public. We also understand that the roadways will need to be resurfaced because of the damage that occurred during the construction process.”
There are also repairs to the boat launch that need to be made as well.
“The end result is that we will have a new park with new facilities, when this is fully completed,” he said.
The park master plan included a primitive campground, a greenway trail along the river, additional picnic areas, improved fishing and boating access and a disc golf course.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are still working on Lock and Dam #2 at Brown’s Landing.
Renovations are expected to the facilities that have been damaged by Hurricane Florence.
The Lock and Dam park is still closed but town manager Eddie Madden is optimistic about its future.