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North Wilkesboro board moves to pursue multiyear federal BUILD planning grant with $12,000 local cap
Summary
The board heard a detailed presentation on a federal BUILD planning grant to fund planning and design for greenways, downtown river-district projects and accessibility work and recorded a motion to pursue the grant with a not-to-exceed $12,000 local expenditure for grant-writing services; no roll-call vote is recorded in the provided transcript.
The North Wilkesboro board heard a detailed presentation on a federal BUILD planning grant opportunity and moved to pursue the planning application with a not-to-exceed $12,000 expenditure for grant-writing services.
Planner (staff) told the board the BUILD program favors joint applications and would fund planning and construction-ready documents — environmental plans, feasibility studies, signage and accessibility work — that would make future capital applications competitive. The presenter said the goal is to produce shovel-ready documents that could support implementation grants later.
The staff estimate included a broad set of deliverables across the two towns: roughly $2 million for an active river greenway systemwide feasibility study, $850,000 for historic downtown engineering and design, $2 million for North Wilkesboro’s downtown and river-district engineering and design, $500,000 for a project manager, and $550,000 for maintenance, accessibility and signage plans. The presenter said these figures are preliminary and likely to shift as the application is refined.
The presenter emphasized one major advantage: under current BUILD guidance described to the board, the planning portion carries no municipal match requirement. "There is no grant match required," the presenter said, adding that the grant is nationally competitive and the town should expect to resubmit if it is not awarded on the first attempt.
Commissioners asked about staff capacity, political influences on a competitive federal grant and whether pursuing the application would lock the town into private development plans. Staff said grant work would increase planning workload and likely require careful management of staff time but would not preclude private development proposals while the planning application is underway.
After discussion about costs and timing, a commissioner moved that the town pursue the BUILD planning grant and set a not-to-exceed $12,000 local expenditure for grant-writing services. The transcript records the motion language but does not include a roll-call or voice vote in the excerpt provided.
If funded, staff said the planning period would run multiple years and the implementation grants could follow; staff estimated notification on awards would arrive in summer or early fall 2027 and forecasted a four- to five-year timeline for planning and initial implementation work.
Next steps: the board member’s motion to pursue the grant (not to exceed $12,000) was made on the record; the transcript does not include a completed vote in the provided excerpt.
