SPENCER — For many small towns across the country, getting the right amount of money to match their ambitions is often the most difficult aspect of their planning process, and Spencer is no different.

After years of delays, it seems as if there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Spencer to fulfill its Northern Rowan Connector project.

The connector will join the Yadkin River and downtown Spencer together through a series of sidewalks and trails. Town Manager Peter Franzese said the connector goes back 24 years with the county’s greenway master planning process, but that iteration never took off after Spencer failed to accumulate their portion of matching funds.

It was around five years ago when the project began to pick up steam again. According to the town’s website, the connector would go “from Yadkin River Park into downtown Spencer via Salisbury Ave./N.C. Highway 29; via Charles Street/Oakwood Drive/Whitehead Street past three schools; connecting to the Stanback Educational Forest trail system at the 7th Street Trailhead; and via the Grants Creek Greenway, eventually connecting to Salisbury’s Greenway System west of Old Mocksville Road.”

The corridor will pass North Rowan Elementary, Middle and High schools and be ADA accessible for 5 or 6 miles on Spencer’s segment.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Steve Blount said the town’s staff modified the original plans to make the trails more efficient and usable for residents and potential visitors.

“Instead of going down 3rd St. to Grant’s Creek, wouldn’t it make better sense to go down 7th St. to Grant’s Creek where our trailhead would connect to the Stanback Forest,” Blount said.

So far, the North Carolina Department of Transportation has been a major contributor to the connector. They have paid for a significant fraction of the project’s feasibility study, which should be completed within the next six months.

“What it will do is help us move further to the path of actually having a designed project that we can build,” Franzese said.

Some of the advantages Spencer has going for it is that the town fronts the Yadkin River, and they already have existing infrastructure in place to improve upon.

“We’re trying to build the connection pieces in between and then fix up the old sidewalks, add some trails where we need to to make connections through the woods,” Blount said.

Spencer already has a 1,000-foot asphalt trail at the Yadkin River Park Trailhead next to the Wil-Cox Bridge, and if their plan is fully realized, the entire system will be 10 miles long from the river to Salisbury. As they continue to add on to it, the price has obviously increased. As of now, it has ballooned to the $14-15 million range.

While NCDOT has helped with that price tag, Spencer was not successful in applying for state funding last year, but they aren’t giving up. They have had discussions with Hometown Strong, a state initiative, to assist in looking for other sources of state and grant funding. Overall, Franzese said Spencer is optimistic about where the connector is heading.
The town has recently hired outside firms like Kimley Horn to draw up strategies from topics like feasibility to outdoor recreation.

Blount also said more commercial growth will be at Long Ferry Road, and the walkability facet of the trail, which is so close to that development, is going to be appealing.

“The concept of a walkable community is attractive to people moving into any place and people have a lot of choice where they live nowadays and they want to see those amenities available to them when they get here,” Blount said. “Walking friendly towns is a catchphrase that’s important to any kind of urban development these days.”

Though there is plenty more effort on the horizon for Spencer, Franzese said real progress for the connector will be “reachable” in the next few years if everything goes smoothly and there are no major hiccups. Still, having gotten this far is its own kind of victory.

“It’s like when you’re at the optometrist and you’re looking at the chart, things are getting less blurry. We’re getting to the point where things are starting to look a little less blurry and a little more clear about where this project is headed,” Franzese said.