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By Buzz Trexler
Star Correspondent

On Sept. 18, 2024, Surf Betsy Advisory Board member Wesley Bradley posted on a social media account dedicated to the whitewater project: “It’s been 5 years since this field study trip, and we now have a local economic impact study to show for the effort.”

Ten days later, Sept. 28, the city was chest-deep in a state of emergency wrought by the remnants of Hurricane Helene, and a planned Sept. 20 meeting The Elizabethton Star had scheduled with city officials to discuss the study was canceled.

Surf Betsy would have to wait.

In response to an open records request from The Star, the city provided a copy of the study — conducted by Southwick Associates of Fernandina Beach, Fla. — along with other documents related to Surf Betsy. The report estimates an in-river whitewater park proposed for sites on the Watauga River would bring in $1.968 million in “total output” to the state’s economy. The economic impact would expand beyond the city limits, according to the Southwick study, thus the numbers were calculated statewide.

“After considering multiple factors influencing the decision to visit the proposed whitewater park, preliminary annual visitation for whitewater kayaking is estimated at 7,300 days, with over 6,900 days for spectating, totaling more than 14,200 visits each year,” the study stated.

“To the extent that additional activities will occur at the proposed site besides whitewater and spectating, such as special events plus participation and spending by youth under 18 years old, these estimates are considered conservative,” the study said.

The study estimates the statewide impact on annual retail spending at $1,491,000; salaries and wages, $709,000; contribution to gross domestic product regionally, $1,127,000; federal taxes, $128,000; and state and local taxes, $163,000.

The study also set the number of full-time and part-time jobs added statewide as a result of the park at 13,900 workers. “These are not just the employees directly serving recreators or manufacturing their goods but also include employees of industries that support and supply directly impacted businesses,” the study said, with salaries and wages totaling $709,000.

Surf Betsy Advisory Board Chairman William E. “Bill” Schooley said this is the second economic impact study done on the project, the first being conducted by East Tennessee State University’s College of Business. Schooley said he did not believe the ETSU study went deep enough, and neither did City Manager Daniel Estes.

“We appreciated that, and it was informative, but it really didn’t go to the depth that we really wanted it to,” Estes said. “It was good and it kind of whetted the appetite.”

“Then we came back and said, ‘OK. Let’s take in one of the future phases that RiverRestoration had — a component of it being the economic impact — let’s just peel that out and have a firm go and do that work,’” Estes said, referring to the Carbondale, Colo., company the city contracted with for the Surf Betsy project in July 2021. In November 2023, the City Council approved a $40,320 amendment to the contract for the Southwick study.

As with the ETSU Business School effort, Schooley believes the Southwick study falls short. While the firm took a more objective approach, Schooley said, it is a “very conservative estimate.”

“I don’t think it really gets to the heart of the matter, and it was underwhelming when we finally got it,” Schooley said. “We paid money for it, and I don’t think it was money very well spent.”

“I think it’s too conservative, and what I was hoping they would do would be — and this is an entirely different approach — to study one of the other comparable parks that exist somewhere else in the country,” he said. “There’s over 20 of them in Colorado. But you don’t have to go very far, really, to uncover a similar type of installation.”

Schooley said a better way to do it would be to look at the data that comes from one of the existing parks and then make a sophisticated analysis of how much of it would be applicable to Elizabethton and Surf Betsy.

Metin Eryasa, an advisory board member often credited with birthing the idea, said he was glad the Southwick study was conservative in its estimates. “Because even with their conservative numbers, it’s a good thing,” he said.

Wesley Bradley, also an advisory board member who has worked with Schooley since the project’s inception, also believes the study falls short.

“We think it’s kind of low-ball numbers from other things that’s comparable, like the Nantahala Outdoor Center,” Bradley said, referring to the Bryson City, N.C., whitewater venue that supporters and city officials visited in 2019. “They gave us much larger numbers when we were down there,” he said, adding that the Southwick study gave the city a starting point, but there is “plenty of room to grow.”

Other cities in the region have whitewater recreation projects already under way.

There is the $4.8 million Taylor’s Wave project in Woodfin, N.C., a small town of about 8,000 people just outside of Asheville on the French Broad River. The first phase of the project had been completed when the remnants of Hurricane Helene roared through, and city officials feared the work that had progressed “may be gone,” according to a report in the Asheville Citizen-Times. Once the waters receded, though, there was cautious optimism, and a Dec. 3, 2024, update on the city’s website said the “outlook for the project is still solid.”

On Dec. 30, 2024, the city of Roanoke, Va., awarded a $5.6 million contract to Environmental Quality Resources (EQR) to construct the state’s first in-river kayak park. According to the Roanoke Outside Foundation, construction is set to begin this spring, with a completion date in late 2026.