GRANITE QUARRY — When Rich Luhrs ran for election to the Granite Quarry Town Council, he said he did not want the town to continue to be viewed as simply the stop in between Salisbury, the seat of Rowan County, and Rockwell, the main center in the eastern part of the county.

The town is now moving towards and working on a multitude of projects improving both its downtown and outdoor spaces.

The first large-scale project that the town has begun working on is the renovation of the Granite Civic Park, the town’s primary park just off the town’s main street, North Salisbury Avenue, on West Peeler Street.

When the town approved its Downtown Master Plan in 2015, the documents included some comments from citizens that had been taken throughout the process. Some of the comments included the nice parks in the town being a favorite, people wanting the town to hold more and better promote events and music in the parks and people pointing to the town’s green spaces as large draws.

When the team handling the plan drafted a community vision statement based on citizen’s input, the parks were featured prominently.

“Granite Quarry is a quiet, small Carolina town with a safe, family-friendly atmosphere. It is a place where residents enjoy a high quality of life with nice parks, good schools and a convenient location with access to larger markets,” reads the first paragraph of the statement.

That work culminated in a master plan for the Granite Civic Park, a plan that is moving closer and closer to fruition, especially after the town received a half a million dollar grant late in 2024 from the N.C. Parks and Recreation Authority Trust Fund.

The adopted master plan includes seven goals that the town hopes to accomplish through the renovations, ranging from continuing the park’s role as a civic center and better accommodating the annual Granite Fest to appealing to more visitors and increasing usage by upgrading park facilities and and allowing for extended hours.

Those goals were the results of a months-long planning process by consulting firm Stewart that included public input sessions, electronic surveys of the community, postcards mailed to Granite Quarry residents and direction from the town council.

During its February meeting, the Granite Quarry Town Council officially approved the design contract with engineering firm Benesch for the design services related to the Granite Civic Park upgrades. The contract totals approximately $294,000 and provides engineering, design, documentation and study services for the first phase of the project, which includes:

• Existing picnic shelter renovations
• Playground
• Paved walking trail
• Existing tennis court resurfacing and pickleball conversion
• Splash pad
• Totem pole and sundial
• Basketball courts
• Associated sitework, utilities and landscaping 

The contract also lays out the expectations between the firm and the town for the second phase of the project, where the town will dig into some of the larger-scale projects, including:

• Dog park
• Amphitheater, covered stage and multi-use field
• Terraced granite seating
• Naturalized play hill slide
• Food truck area
• Restroom building
• Stream restoration
• Picnic area and walkways at the American Legion building

Town Manager Jason Hord said that due to the time constraints of the project and the town not wanting to interfere with Granite Fest, the town’s largest event of the year, construction in the park is not expected to begin until after the festival in October. However, he noted that the town is getting “closer and closer to being able to say we’ve (fully) funded” the project, with multiple grant funding sources and town revenue sources being identified, with Mayor Brittany Barnhardt adding that the town was already sitting around 60 percent funding with multiple identified grants still pending.

While the Civic Park is currently the most prominent project that the town is working on, it is far from the only one. The town has an agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation on a project that would build sidewalks in between the town’s three parks, Granite Civic Park, Granite Lake Park and the Centennial Park.

Town officials have also been continuously looking into ways to improve or further develop its downtown spaces. Recently, Hord said that the project has been ruled feasible and the town is exploring funding avenues, with both private and public grant funding being mentioned.

The park has been part of the town since the 1950s, when the land was donated by J.F. Crook to the independent Granite Post Park, Inc. Following the donation, the property was purchased by donations from residents and donated to the town.

The adjacent Granite Quarry Legion Building, which has effectively become part of the park and is part of the renovation project, was given to the town in 2009 by the American Legion, who were unable to afford its upkeep due to declining membership. The building has been owned by the town and operated as an events center ever since.

“I just love that we’re not kicking cans (down the road) anymore, and we’re actually running the marathon and we can see the finish line down there at the end. It’s exciting, so thank you to (the town) council and staff for the support. I know a lot of people don’t keep up with this boring part of contracts and studies and designs and all that, but when they start seeing the construction (at Granite Civic Park), they’ll really pay attention. People are really excited, the ones that do know about it,” said Barnhardt.