BY IVAN SANDERS

STAR STAFF

ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com

With the continued growth in the outdoor recreation movement, towns and cities across America are starting to stand up and take notice of what they have to offer the growing number of enthusiasts.

Elizabethton is no different as the recreational explosion being experienced is a major focal point for Elizabethton Parks and Rec Director Mike Mains as well as the Elizabethton City Council.

In their recent regular session, the council reaffirmed that commitment as they entered into an agreement with SORBA, the Southern Off-Road Bicycles Association, to develop the bicycle trails in the city-owned Hampton watershed area.

“When you look at outdoor recreation, we are blessed to have a lot of natural resources that we can tap into to make a difference and this is just one of those,” Mains said about the agreement with SORBA. “The trail itself is 3.5 miles — a beautiful scenic trail that is currently being used.

“One of our goals is to start and market that more to bring people into our area and to serve the needs of those locally first and foremost.”

Mains wholeheartedly felt that as time moves forward and with the evolvement of the trail that the economic impact will begin to trickle into the pocket of business owners locally.

“It could really be a tourist attraction we believe and if you look down the road, more development could possibly turn into a greater resource for us,” Mains added.

“With the bike trails alone, the most significant thing about the SORBA agreement is these guys are really top professionals in this field.

“It’s been a joy to work with them, but they also care about the facilities and with something like this, first and foremost, we have to make sure they are safe to ride on.

“Then we go from there and look at routine maintenance and inspections which they are going to be helping to do all that,” continued Mains. “So it’s a win-win for everyone in this case.”

The Hampton watershed bike trails were just the scratch of the surface of the resources that readily lie available to capitalize on in Elizabethton — resources that exist in the heart of the city.

Mains mentioned a couple of those that included the Watauga River and the Covered Bridge Park area.

“There are other things in consideration like a whitewater sports park which will come with Surf Betsy and that’s something down the road that we could possibly form a task force and go from there,” Mains stated.

“That will allow us to tap into the Watauga River and we can see some recreational use that we haven’t seen before.

“You then look at the Covered Bridge Park — that’s another example of where we have a great plan that has been developed for us by Appalachian State over a year ago.

“That’s one of the priorities that we have is to do some renovation work there,” Mains continued. “If we do that and some of these other things, that’s going to be something unique and different other cities don’t have.”

Mains said that many in the community feel that a sports complex would go a long way in adding to what is already in the works by the city.

The bottom line is that the construction of a complex comes with a price tag that would push a lot of plans already in consideration to the bottom.

For such a complex to be constructed, members of the community and businesses would need to step up and do their part as well to make a sports complex a reality.

“Sports complexes we love and would love to have one but the price tag is up there of course and we need help,” said Mains. “We need partnerships and someone to come along for naming rights to help us possibly do a project like this.

“There is a lot to consider and think about.”

Mains said for Elizabethton to make the best use of the resources, it will take a selective approach and streamline the projects that make the most sense to the city council for their residents.

“I think it’s extremely important to create those opportunities,” Mains stated. “At the end of the day, we want as many recreational resources that we can have but we have to be selective and I think that the city council will be considering which are the most important.”