Swing a left off N.C. 61, and you will find boats hitched to the backs of trucks, Labradors romping on trails, and Pelican’s Point, a serene corner of Lake Mackintosh where the water stretches out to a line of trees and curls around a gazebo on a jut of grass.

Whitsett’s Guilford-Mackintosh Park and Marina is one of the City of Burlington’s hidden gems — hidden, in part, because it isn’t in Burlington.

The city partnered with Guilford County in the early 1990s to create a second Lake Mackintosh park after the success of the park on Huffman Mill Road. While Burlington owns the land, Guilford pays the operating expenses, and Burlington Recreation and Parks Director Tony Laws says it’s been a great partnership that’s created a quiet, beautiful place to get away from the hustle and bustle.

“It’s a park mainly based on nature. It’s on the water, for one thing, so people come to boat and fish, and also we have some of our nicer nature trails there that are very popular especially on the weekends. … It’s a different type of activity,” he said.

Burlington’s other parks are scenes of constant activity, and while the city doesn’t track park attendance (Laws says it would be too hard to get an accurate count since there are multiple places to enter or exit Burlington parks), it’s obvious which park is the most visited.

Burlington City Park is a hub of activities for all ages.

The amusement park, which includes the famous 110-year-old Dentzel carousel, draws families from around the county. There's also the train, which runs a loop with a station, a tunnel and two bridges across Little Alamance Creek, other children's rides, a playground, an aquatics center, tennis courts, a dog park, a senior center, and beautiful, open grass, all of which offer different kinds of activities in an accessible area.

But there are aspects to be improved. The city is currently working on a study on greenways, which are pathways for running, walking, and bicycling. While Burlington has plenty of trails, Laws says, they’re missing connectivity.

Getting from one place to another is difficult because of busy streets like South Church Street and Webb Avenue. People want to be able to walk or ride a bike from City Park to downtown, and recreational activity is moving more toward getting out and burning calories, getting fresh air, and spending time with family.

“Public recreation has been very consistent, but there are trends and changes,” Laws said.

For example, youth and teen athletics are in a valley right now because kids are trending toward adventure-type recreation these days, like hiking trails, canoeing and kayaking.

But providing a diversity of things to do is what Laws says Burlington Recreation and Parks does best.

“The Parks Department used to manage the Cemetery and Grounds Division, so I’d say, ‘We take you from birth to death, and then we plant you.’ … We don’t do that anymore, but we serve all ages.

“In between is harder — the older teens and young adults — but there are things for them to do. We try to make it diverse as we can and have something for everybody, and I think we do well with that. This community is very Recreation and Parks oriented. They use the parks and participate in our programs, and that all makes it worthwhile,” Laws said.



GRAHAM RECREATION and Parks Director Brian Faucette says the 118-acre Graham Regional Park aims to accomplish the same level of diversified activity.

“We designed the park for multigenerational play, meaning that parents and children can play together. Hopefully that will be what we see, and also with the natural playground, we left as many trees as we possibly could to get kids back out into nature. We’re helping that by having some pre-fab pieces out there, but just returning kids to nature and playing with their moms, and dads, and grandmas, and grandpas” is the goal, Faucette said.

The city paid $94,000 for the land off Jim Minor Road in 2010 after an 800-home development fell through and the developer filed for bankruptcy. $500,000 for the project came in a grant from the Connect NC Bond for recreation projects catering to veterans or children with disabilities, and will fund a fenced playground, parking lot, bathroom, and water fountain.

Fifth-grade students at Highland Elementary School wrote essays on what it would mean to them to have an all-inclusive playground to be included with the grant proposal, which contributed to its receiving the highest score. The playground, which will benefit students with and without disabilities, is set to open in spring 2018.

When it’s all said and done, the park also will include four baseball fields, five soccer fields, a football field, a dog park, amphitheater, and recreation and senior center, all of which is estimated to cost $20 million. To break that up, the park will be built in phases.

The first will open April 13 after nearly two decades of work trying to find land, secure funding and hammer out other details.

It includes a natural playground, a community open lawn, a youth challenge course, exercise equipment, and a shelter, all of which is encircled by a multipurpose walking and biking trail that's fully paved with 15-foot-wide asphalt and two-foot shoulders on both sides made of a material called “gravel dust,” which is softer.

The Regional Park comes at the same time the City of Mebane is preparing to start construction of its Community Park. Faucette says both are responses to the fact that the athletics programs in Alamance County are “exploding,” and there isn’t enough space to accommodate every sport.

Soccer is the priority for Mebane right now and will be for Graham in the future, as well as lacrosse and other alternative sports that could use a soccer field.

THE MEBANE CITY Council approved the city’s 32-acre, $10 million Community Park, at 627 W. Center St. on former pastureland owned by the McLeod family, in July 2016.

One of the highest priorities listed on the city’s 2014 Recreation and Parks master plan, the Community Park will include six lighted tennis courts, two soccer fields, a playground, a dog park, concessions, a splash pad and parking.

Mebane Recreation and Parks Director Dean Ray is eager for construction to begin and for Mebane citizens to have more amenities.

“Parks are a great investment at any time. They increase the quality of life for everyone who takes advantage of them,” Ray said, adding that he’s most looking forward to “providing the people of our city more recreation facilities to grow our programs and increase park space for families to get outside and enjoy time together.”

Including a negotiated contract amount of $8.85 million for the lowest bidder, Fred Smith Co., the total budget for the project is $10,199,796 with the city borrowing $5,830,000. Construction is set to begin in June, and the park should be completed by May 2018.

The city also is dedicating time and resources to becoming more “walkable,” meaning people can get from one place to another via bike or on foot — an increasingly popular request.

Ways to achieve walkability are included in the city’s 119-page Comprehensive Land Development Plan, which will serve as a guide for all local land use decisions in the future, and has 21 policy goals in six areas: growth management, public facilities and infrastructure, preservation of community and culture, community appearance, open space and natural resources, and coordination.

The plan says Mebane aims to “provide greenways, parks and open space connectivity between different land uses and across major transportation corridors advancing safety and health,” which includes creating dedicated bike and pedestrian connections across major roads like Mebane Oaks Road and Interstate 40/85.

The Mebane by Design website, which lays out the details of the city’s plan, has a public comment section where citizens can ask questions and make suggestions before the City Council votes on the plan in May.

Glenda Linens wrote, “Glad to see information about greenways, bikelanes and sidewalks. Would love to see even more health considerations in the plan.”

At a council budget meeting in February, council member Jill Auditori commended city staff for making greenways a top priority.

“I feel like y’all are on the right track, and I think it’s important to remember there’s a trend toward people wanting to live in places where they can access amenities by foot or bike or some other something besides getting in their car and driving somewhere, so I think these things are important,” Auditori said.



ALAMANCE PARKS Director Brian Baker says the county’s parks departments are united under a common goal right now: people want to walk.

“As an industry as a whole, we’re focusing more on trails and walking and running opportunities and nature parks because those are consistently what show up in our studies to determine what people want. We’re doing a recreational needs study right now we’ve gotten a couple thousand people to fill out, and people want walking trails, sidewalks, walking tracks, and nature parks is usually No. 2,” Baker said.

Making every area of Alamance County “walkable” is not going to happen overnight, but Baker knows a thing or two about long-term projects. The Haw River Trail partnership began more than a decade ago, and still has miles to go — literally.

The project, a partnership between multiple counties and cities (based on a Memorandum of Understanding signed by 12 governmental agencies), aims to connect the Haw River State Park in northern Guilford County to Jordan Lake in Chatham County. In total, it’s a 70-mile stretch, 40 of which are in Alamance County.

So far, they’ve covered about 17 miles of that in land trails, and the complete 40 in the paddle trail, which hosts the wildly popular Alamance County Yee Haw River Paddle. Baker says they’re continuing at a pace of about 2 miles per year for the land trail, and it’s a slow and steady effort.

“It’s a voluntary project, which means we have to knock on the doors of every landowner and ask for permission, and sometimes they say ‘No,’ so we wait a while and then go back and ask again,” Baker said.

This year they’re adding a new section just south of the interstate across from Alamance Community College, and some new sections along the river north and south of Saxapahaw. The ACC trail is set to open before the year is out, and the Saxapahaw section will follow soon after.

Aside from achieving connectivity, the HRT project also hopes to improve community attitudes toward the river, conserve natural habitats, improve water quality by slowing polluted water before it gets to lakes, rivers, and aquifers, and preserving sections of land that have been owned by Alamance families since the 1700s.

But Baker has more on his plate than just the HRT, including working with other departments on various events and programs.

“Right now we have as good a cooperation with the municipalities as we’ve ever had,” he said.

Additionally, big projects include a new equestrian center at Alamance Parks’ most popular venue, Cedarock Park, which Baker hopes eventually will encompass a stable where people can rent horses for trail rides.

There are also plans for Saxapahaw Island Park, which is part of the Haw River Trail, to have a nature playground, and a long-term effort to build a nature park at Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area, where they’ve been working with the state and some private landowners to acquire property. They own just shy of 500 acres now.

The efforts are mostly slow-going, requiring a lot of planning and patience, but in the end Baker says parks and trails make a lasting impact that most other work doesn’t.

“It’s the permanence and being able to create facilities, and memories for that matter, that last for a very long time. There aren’t a lot of industries where the work that you do lasts for years and years, so I get a lot of pleasure from that,” he said.

Reporter Jessica Williams can be reached at jessica.williams@thetimesnews.com or at 336-506-3046. Follow her on Twitter at @jessicawtn.