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White Lake nonprofit asks Bladen County to accept donated house for welcome center
Summary
White Lake Friends requested the county accept a donated 1,000‑square‑foot house to site on county property along Highway 701 and lease it back for a welcome center and historical museum; commissioners asked the county attorney to draft an agreement for consideration at the next meeting.
White Lake Friends representative Kathy Kinlaw told the Bladen County Board of Commissioners that the group was donated a roughly 1,000‑square‑foot house and asked the county to accept the structure and allow the nonprofit to lease it back as a welcome center and museum on Highway 701 North at the county emergency services training center.
“We are an organization whose mission it is to restore, conserve, and protect the natural resources of White Lake,” Kinlaw said, describing partnerships with local governments, conservation groups and NC State University and outlining plans for a welcome center, historical displays and a community building. She said the donated house “is sitting on the waterfront at White Lake right now” and that the organization would like it moved and rehabilitated to serve the lake and county.
Kinlaw asked the board to consider receiving the donation, placing it at a county PIN along Highway 701 North near the Emergency Services Training Center, and allowing White Lake Friends to lease the building for a nominal fee in order to operate the welcome center and museum. She described Highway 701 North as “the largest, traffic most traffic area road that we have at White Lake” and the corridor to Elizabethtown, saying the site would be well‑suited for visitors.
A member of the board responded that the county attorney should draft the necessary paperwork and bring the proposal back to the board for formal consideration. “So if it's okay with the board, I would ... ask the attorney to look in this and draw up something and bring it back to the next meeting,” the commissioner said.
Next steps: the board directed the county attorney to prepare an agreement for accepting the donation and a lease proposal for the nonprofit and to present that paperwork at a future meeting.
No formal vote on an acceptance or lease was recorded during public comment; the board's instruction to the attorney was given as direction to prepare documents for a future agenda.
