SPENCER — The town voted Tuesday night to accept a state grant for $100,000 from the Parks and Recreation Division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The grant, applied for through the Connecting Communities to State Trails, will be used for Spencer’s Grants Creek Blueway, according to Special Projects Director Joe Morris.

“We qualified based on our proximity to Yadkin River, and our population is less than 5,000” said Morris, who wrote the grant application.

The grant will allow the town to build a trail head with a gravel lot and trail down to Grants Creek where about 400 feet of land streamside will become a canoe/kayak launch. Morris said boaters can then travel two and a half miles to connect to the Yadkin River, and then they can float down to York Hill on the Davidson County side of the Yadkin River Park.

Morris said the grant does not require matching funds from the town.

Town Manager Peter Feranzese said the town has unofficially explored the cost of the project, and while there will eventually be an official competitive bidding process, those initial estimates indicate the grant should fully fund this particular project.

It is, however, just one piece of a larger project the town continues to work on. The town was deeded a parcel of 46.75 acres from Three Rivers Land Trust in 2023, that includes the northern portion along the Stanback Education Forest. On Monday, Morris said the town submitted a grant application under the Great Trails State program that would allow for the development of 7,500 feet of trails within those 46 acres. It would be a trail that connects Spencer Avenue to Grants Creek.

“The matching portion of the grant is on a sliding scale, so for us, we would essentially receive $2 in grant money for every $1 of matching funds,” said Franzese. He and Morris said the town should hear if the grant has been given over the winter.

“In the meantime, we are moving ahead with this grant and this project, which we expect could begin construction this summer,” said Franzese. “But there is a potential, if we received the larger grant, that we will combine the two. It depends on construction costs.” He explained that the town will take a look at construction prices, and if it appears that they will be better for a larger project, the town will work to combine them.

The town applied for $460,000 in grant funds and there is already $230,000 available in matching funds, according to Morris.

“We have some wonderful philanthropic contributors that have given us that much, so it would mean we would have $690,000 available in total,” Morris said, and that would be in addition to the $100,000 the town just received.

The town has not yet received the formal paperwork for this latest approved grant, but at Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, members voted to accept it so when it does arrive, they can hit the ground running. They will receive the paperwork and guidance from the State Trails Planner Kat Deutsch, according to their approval letter from Reid Wilson, Secretary of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Mayor Jonathan Williams praised Morris for his continued ability to seek and get grants for Spencer.

“He always says ‘the projects tell the story,’ but he does an incredible job of putting the stories together,” Williams said. “I’m so excited about this. It’s another step in Spencer’s efforts at a connected trail. We’ve been pushing for extensions and growth of blueways and greenways and this is part of that process.”