PRINCESS ANN — While snagging of 85 miles of the Lumber River is going swimmingly, a multi-million dollar project at the newest site of the Lumber River State Park has hit a snag, state and federal officials reported this week.
Nearly four years removed from a public works bond referendum that earmarked $2.2 million for improvements at the park’s Wire Pasture site, the state has not made any progress on the project, according to the North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation.
Elsewhere on the river, work crews, who call themselves river rats, continue to make progress clearing fallen trees and debris from the river, according to the U.S Department of Agriculture’s local office of Soil and Water Conservation. Although high water has slowed work recently, clearing of the river within Robeson County’s borders is on track to be complete by early spring.
The hope is the cleanup will enhance the river flow to prevent the kind of flooding that followed hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018.
Funds from the March 2016 NC Connect Public Improvement Bond Referendum are available for improvements at the Wire Pasture near Pembroke. With designs for an information center, classroom, picnic sites, parking and a swimming area, the project may be dead in the water.
The riverfront acreage at Wire Pasture is privately owned, a fact that the state missed when it planned to establish the third site of the Lumber River State Park there.
“We have not gotten the landowners to respond,” said Katie Hall, a Parks and Recreation spokesperson. “We’re in discussions about what to do next.”
The Wire Pasture site has been problematic from the start because it is a popular local hangout. Also problematic is a 2017 legislative directive to move the park’s headquarters from Princess Ann in Robeson County to Fair Bluff in Columbus County.
“That was a suggestion that came from a state senator, not from our office,” Hall said. “We may establish a larger presence there.”
Fair Bluff, which is at the southernmost point of the 115-mile state park, was devastated twice by river flooding from Matthew and Florence. Construction in the floodplain by the riverside is likely impossible.
Currently, the Lumber River State Park consists of 12,000 acres at Princess Ann Landing in Robeson County and Chalk Banks in Scotland County. Recreation on the river has suffered from fallen trees from the twin hurricanes, and the snagging project is welcome, according to Lane Garner, park superintendent.
“Floods have changed thinking about the future,” Garner said. “We’re pleased to see the river being cleared out from bank to bank.”
Lucas Baxley, a district technician for the Robeson County office of Soil and Water Conservation who is responsible for the river clearing project, said work is progressing, although high water has slowed crews.
“They have completed work from Boardman to Willoughby Road,” Baxley said. “They are pretty spread out, so it’s difficult to say how much is complete.”
The crew working downstream from Maxton stopped work, but a crew was spotted working along the river in Lumberton this week. Inspections of their work are on hold until water recedes.
“The weather has set work back some, but we expect to complete the project by March,” Baxley said.
The river was measured at 12 feet Friday at the West Fifth Street bridge, said Mason Mantis of the U.S. Geological Survey, which is responsible for measuring depth and flow of the river. In Friday’s newspaper, The Robesonian reported the river is at 12.56 feet at the bridge and receding.
A Geological Survey crew visits the Lumber River every eight weeks, Mantis said. They check equipment and measure flow with a flotation device that reports to a laptop computer.
“Today we are testing a new flow tracker from SonTek Corporation,” Manis said while standing on the West Fifth Street bridge. “We selected this as a good test site.”
Michael Hughes, a SonTek scientist, was also on hand Friday. He said he will be in Asheville by nightfall.
The U.S. Geological Survey monitors every river in the nation. When the Lumber River flooded after the hurricanes, they were on-site the entire time checking equipment and taking measurements.
