In late 2018 , Representative Blackwell talked to Beth Heile at the Valdese Rotary Pancake Breakfast about a trail along the river. The goal of trail would be to reach each municipality Burke County, bringing economic development opportunities and health for residents.
![](https://rivertrail.betterburke.com/_files/2024/06/beth-and-hugh-at-111-1-1024x930.jpg)
Trail Vision Timeline
- 2018 Blackwell shared River Trail vision with Heile
- 2019 Continued work on Valdese Lakeside Park and Wilderness Gateway State Trail
- 2020 Focused River Trail work started with volunteer Heile and Rep Blackwell meeting with all local governments and large landowners
- 2021 Continued volunteer effort to contact landowners, BRTA formed
- 2022 In May, Heile contracted for one year with WPCOG for more detailed feasibility study, public inputs in each town
- 2023 Continued volunteer effort
- 2024 BRTA hires Heile as part time Executive Director
An earnest effort started on the “trail along the river” in January, 2020. Blackwell and Heile met with Scott Carpenter and Shane Prisby of the Burke County Community Development Department. The county did not have time to work on this new trail. However, Prisby did put together some ideas of how where the trail could run. Shown below.
![](https://rivertrail.betterburke.com/_files/2024/06/first-pass.jpg)
From there, Beth started contacting large land owners about the possibility of hosting trail and the response of Natural Land Alliance started a huge wave. In June 2020, the foundation was laid for a 4-mile section in Valdese with Town of Valdese, Burke County Public Schools, and the developer.
In July, 2020, Western Piedmont Council of Government (WPCOG) committed to a broad feasibility study with a final map for the Burke Catawba River Trail. Beth Heile organized stakeholders for the study – town managers, land owners, land trust, tourism and the county. Todd Stroupe presented the study area and scoring used to rank parcels. Attendees discussed overall goal of path and possible routes.
For the rest of 2020, Rep Blackwell and Beth Heile as a volunteer trail advocate traveled to all Burke County’s local governments and large landowners. Read the details of each stop:
- August 10, 2020 Morganton and Drexel
- August 18, 2020 Rutherford College
- August 27, 2020 Rhodhiss and Hildebran
- September 21, 2020 Vulcan, Connelly Springs, Long View
- October 15, 2020 Public Input Meeting
In May 2021, Beth Heile formed the 501c3 nonprofit Burke River Trail Association to be in a position to apply for grants to assist in advancing the trail.
With funding from a NC State Budget appropriation in 2024, the BRTA board hired Heile as the Executive Director. The new board decided the organization should be about more than just getting trail on the ground as Heile was uncovering downtown revitalization, housing and new opportunities. They set three focus areas – Connections, Communities and Conservation. About BRTA