Charlotte whitewater park

Charlotte to truly understand what it has to offer," said Scott Martin, director of the county's department of commerce and leisure services. "We basically will have the same thing in here, only on a smaller scale. And we won't have the expense of building, from scratch, a whitewater park out of concrete and rocks."

Representatives from the Franklin County Board of Supervisors, county recreation commission, Franklin County Veterans' Memorial Park, two engineering firms, the Creek Freak paddlers club and others spent the day Tuesday touring the $38 million whitewater park in Charlotte.

When phases one and two of the proposed park along the Pigg River are completed the cost has been placed at $3 million. This total does not include more than $500,000 in federal money that will be spent on removing the old Rocky Mount power dam.

Martin, who organized and headed the trip, said, "I wanted these key people to see the whole element of our water park plans at one site (in Charlotte). This not only includes the in-stream (whitewater) feature but the hiking, rock climbing, biking, walking, mountain biking and concert venue," he said.

Also included in the local plans are a building that will offer canoe and kayak rentals, a small restaurant, climbing wall and space for the headquarters for the Ward Burton Wildlife Foundation.

Charlotte has a restaurant, gift shop, buildings for raft and kayak rentals, along with locker rooms for changing.

Walking trails, an amphitheater and other outdoor recreation features also are included in the proposed local water park.

Along those lines, it was noted that the Charlotte park stages a jam session every Thursday night, "which is growing weekly," a spokesperson said.

Martin said a "huge plus" the Pigg River has over the Charlotte facility is the fishing opportunities.

After the power dam is removed, it will allow not only the endangered Roanoke Logperch to go up and down the river, but will open up the river for trout, which are stocked on a regular basis, he noted.

Martin said another difference in the "in-stream" features is that the Charlotte facility's water supply is provided by seven available pumps recirculating the water used in the three whitewater courses (Only six pumps are used in the day-to-day operation).

"The PiggﾠRiver will be flowing through the in-stream boulders and rocks filled with concrete. There will be no pumps involved in our park," Martin said.

The Pigg River park also will have the distinction of being the first in-stream whitewater park in Virginia. The Charlotte facility is billed as the world's largest man-made whitewater river.

The three in-stream structures in front of the low head dam at veterans park on Scuffling Hill Road should be in place by the end of the year or early next year, according to Martin.

Those three are being added at veterans park to eliminate a dangerous hydraulic in front of the dam. It becomes more of a hazard when the water level is up.

Scott Shipley, a former U.S. Olympic kayaker, was one of the designers of the Charlotte park. His company has designed 40-50 natural flowing river water parks across the country and is the designer of the Pigg River park, according to Martin.

Also taking Tuesday's tour was Chris Fewster and two representatives of Anderson and Associates of Roanoke, along with Jim Lovell of Earth Environmental Inc., who are assisting with engineering plans.

Dan Hepp, paddlesports manager for the U.S. National Whitewater Center, conducted the tour for the local group.

At the Charlotte park, the water is pumped into a holding pond where rafters and kayakers start one of three courses ranging in degrees of difficulty. There is an 18-foot drop from the start to the end of the courses.

This compares to an approximately 20-foot drop in the natural of bed of the Pigg River to the base of the old dam.

The length of the Charlotte whitewater runs is 3,700 feet, while the Pigg River length will be 1,100 feet.

Two of the three whitewater courses at Charlotte have a flow of 600 cubic feet a second (CFS) with one dropping to 300 CFS. This compares to an average annual flow of 200 CFS for the PiggﾠRiver. Martin said there will only be about 25-29 days during the year when the water will be high after a heavy rain to create rapids in the area of the Power Dam Road bridge.

A conveyor system is used to transport rafters and kayakers from the lower section of the Charlotte park back to the upper pond.

Fewster detailed the plans for the Pigg River park and gave the representatives a progress report for the dam removal in late 2010 or early 2011.

Before lunch, Hepp also told the local visitors the U.S. Olympic tryouts were held in Charlotte.

"The last day of the tryouts, 4,000 to 5,000 people turned out to watch and see who was going to fill the last vacancy on the U.S. kayak team," Hepp said. "The competition was fierce."

In a prepared fact sheet comparing the two facilities handed out before the trip started at 7 a.m., it was noted that the annual operating cost of the Charlotte facility is $6.8 million as compared to $120,000 for the local park when completed.