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Recreation Advisory Committee Meeting

Chatham County · Recreation Advisory Committee
Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 6:00 pm · Bynum General Store, 950 Bynum Rd Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312

Advisory board meeting Parks and recreationEnvironment and sustainabilityGrants and outside fundingPublic facilities

Agenda document Minutes Meeting page Watch Meeting recap

What was decided

  1. Approved 2Approve minutes - February 26, 2025 Approved unanimously, with a note added on a member's concerns about the playground surfacing

Read from the agenda's recorded outcomes. Where the board published minutes, those are the record — this is a pointer to them.

What's on this agenda

Chatham County's Recreation Advisory Committee walked the South Bynum River Access on 19 March 2025 before meeting at the Bynum General Store. It backed the county's $500,000 application to the state Parks and Recreation Trust Fund for the first phase of Parker's Ridge Park.

The tour covered the newly acquired Johnson Heirs tract beside the river access and the nearly finished work at the Bynum Mill, part of the Lower Haw State Natural Area.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

The grant application, due 1 May, asks $500,000 against a county match of at least half. It would pay for three things in the park's first phase: a restroom and picnic shelter, a pump track with separate areas for children and adults, and a compacted gravel path connecting those to the inclusive playground. The county's match comes from money already allocated to Parker's Ridge, and the county pays for roads and utilities on top. The committee's support was unanimous. Competition is heavy and Pittsboro is applying too.

Parker's Ridge construction was still expected to start around August 2025. On the new tract beside the river access, staff have begun marking native species ahead of invasive plant removal, and a member suggested the county offer invasive species identification and removal as a program.

The February minutes were approved with a note added about a member's concerns over the playground surfacing.

How the votes went

The February minutes and the motion supporting the state parks grant application for Parker's Ridge Phase I both passed unanimously.

From the published minutes.

Speaking at this meeting

Chatham County's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (4)

Discussion item · 2Minutes approval · 1Procedural · 1
  1. 1 Tour: South Bynum River Access, the Johnson Heirs tract and the Bynum Mill
    Discussion item Environment and sustainabilityParks and recreation
    Signage, bench and invasive-clearing work at the river access, plans for the newly acquired tract, and the nearly finished improvements at the Bynum Mill in the Lower Haw State Natural Area.
  2. 2 Approve minutes - February 26, 2025
    Minutes approval
    Approved unanimously, with a note added on a member's concerns about the playground surfacing
  3. 3 Parker's Ridge update and PARTF grant proposal
    Discussion item Grants and outside fundingParks and recreationPublic facilities
    A $500,000 state Parks and Recreation Trust Fund application due May 1 for the park's first phase: a restroom and picnic shelter, a pump track, and a gravel path to the inclusive playground, against a county match of at least half.
    Supported unanimously
  4. 4 Upcoming meeting dates and locations
    Procedural

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