INC NEWS - Pressure mounts for West Point on the Eno transfer (Herald-Sun)

[John Schelp]

[Please ask City Council to "support efforts to protect 60 acres next to West Point on the Eno and let the State manage the park" by sending an email to council at ci.durham.nc.us]

Pressure mounts for West Point on the Eno transfer
By Ray Gronberg, Herald-Sun, 23 Sept 2008
 
An advisory board vote and an e-mail campaign are putting more pressure on City Council members to consider transferring control of West Point on the Eno to the state as part of a preservation deal. 

Members of the Durham Open Space and Trails Commission voted recently to support the transfer, provided the city and the state first negotiate an agreement to continue existing programs at the park. 

Supporters of the transfer say it would clear the way for the state to spend millions of dollars to buy 60 acres next door to the park that a developer is threatening build homes on. 

Provided the city and the state can agree on existing programs, a transfer "I think [is] the right way to go," said Dan Clever, the commission's chairman. 

Clever acknowledged that another city panel, the Recreation Advisory Commission, voted this month to urge the City Council to retain West Point. That group argued officials have to retain the ability to base programs at the 390-acre park. 

Backers of the transfer, meanwhile, have opened an e-mail-writing campaign targeting City Council members. It prompted dozens of residents to write messages, mostly short, agreeing with the desire to preserve the 60 acres and that it's OK to let the state have West Point. 

Some neighborhood leaders have helped by forwarding appeals for support to key e-mail lists. 

The proposal would be "a very positive partnership between the city and the state," said John Schelp, president of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. 

Leaders of the Friends of the West Point on the Eno Park contend a transfer is the only way to preserve the land next door, which belongs to Florida resident Mildred Ray. 

Relations between the city and the state governments are somewhat shaky at the moment. They've clashed recently over the design of a road widening along Alston Avenue, the city's ability to raise vehicle taxes to support Durham's bus system and problems in the local parole office. 

But Clever voiced confidence the state can run West Point to Durham residents' satisfaction. 

"I don't know what, if any, problems Durham has had with state parks," he said. "That's the piece of the state that's in question here." 

The West Point controversy is the third major preservation fight in 15 years in this area to begin with a development threat. 

In 2005 governments in Orange and Durham counties agreed to buy a parcel off Erwin Road from Duke University after the school signaled it would otherwise sell it to a developer. 

And in 1993, former Hillsborough Mayor Fred Cates got would-be preservationists to sweeten their offer for a hilltop property his family owned by selling its timber rights to a logging company. 

The Eno River Association within six weeks responded by buying out the logger's interest. The land later became park of the state parks system.