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Riverside Park repairs, interpretive signage and Taylor’s Wave construction advance amid river cleanup
Summary
Staff updated the advisory committee on Riverside Park emergency repairs, interpretive signage for Riverside Park, Taylor’s Wave construction progress and the larger river-debris cleanup. The town signed a memorandum with the state to transfer private-property debris removal to a state-managed program.
Town staff provided updates May 14 on Riverside Park recovery, installation of interpretive signage, the Taylor’s Wave construction schedule and river-debris cleanup after recent storms.
Staff said emergency riverbank repair work at Riverside Park — roughly 340 feet of bank — has been completed. Work to repair park trails, restrooms and the pavilion is included in separate FEMA damage-repair applications now under review. The town also presented a suite of interpretive signs planned for Riverside Park covering river landforms, mountain building, floodplains, human impacts and fish species. Staff said the design team (Equinox) proposed sign locations near the main parking lot, the restroom structure and the play area; staff asked committee members for feedback on content, signage size and inclusion of indigenous names for the French Broad River. Committee members suggested including Cherokee names and consulting Cherokee representatives and raised map-orientation corrections for a river-flow graphic.
On the river-recovery front, staff reported that right-of-way debris removal is wrapping up and that crews have completed most tributary cleanup. The French Broad River remains the largest remaining waterway task; contractors had paused work because of high water but staff said they expect most visible, major debris to be removed over the summer. Private-property debris removal — and several sites the town identified as high-risk and difficult to access — would have been a large logistical and fiscal burden for Woodfin because the town pays contractors first and seeks FEMA reimbursement afterward. To accelerate private-property debris removal and reduce fiscal risk, the town signed a memorandum of agreement this week to transfer project management for private-property debris removal to a new state program (referred to in the meeting as the SMART program). Under that arrangement, the state will manage contractor payments and FEMA coordination from the agreed handoff date; work completed before the handoff remains the town’s responsibility.
Taylor’s Wave construction is under way: staff said the contractor completed one cofferdam, dewatered a section of the river and planned drilling into bedrock followed by placement of structural boulders. Staff aim to complete the wave structure by the end of the calendar year and to begin park-land construction in the following calendar year. Staff said they hope to make the wave accessible to recreation when safe to do so, but they cautioned that river-cleanup work must continue and that submerged debris will make the river unsafe for recreation until the bulk of cleanup is finished.
Staff asked the committee for feedback on signage content and to help identify Cherokee contacts for review of indigenous-language references. They also asked members to note concerns about map orientation, signage placement and accessibility for Spanish-language or Cherokee-language translations.
