Amherst Park Will Be a River Draw

When a boat ramp was constructed on the Amherst County side of the James River more than a decade ago just downstream from the John Lynch Bridge, many thought it would be the first step toward a recreational park for the county.

The James River Batteau Festival has made good use of the boat ramp in the intervening years, but the county is no closer to a park today than it was then. Recreational parks, even on the riverfront in Madison Heights, simply didn’t score particularly high on the priority chart for the county.

That may be about to change. It would be a change for the good that has been a long-time coming.

A bill making its way through the General Assembly would give the county a 31-acre state-owned site along the river in Madison Heights. County officials have said the gift from the state could pave the way for a park with trails and even a fishing pier.

Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge, sponsored the legislation and said the site includes an old sewage treatment plant that is no longer being used. The state has no further use for the land. Cline’s district includes most of Amherst County.

Claudia Tucker, a member of the Amherst County Board of Supervisors, said the planned park “would be a game-changer for old Madison Heights” and efforts to renew that part of the county. She said the county paid to have a sewage treatment tank removed several years ago, but didn’t want to put any more money into the property because it didn’t own it.

The county obtained land known as the Smiley Block property in the early 1990s, land that included the site for the boat ramp. Plans were drawn up for a parking area, trails, picnic tables and other recreational items on the Smiley Block site. They even had a name for the park in 2006 — Riveredge. But nothing happened.

Tucker and Frank Campbell, the board chairman, put that inactivity in its best light when they said recently that the park plans “languished for a while.” A number of plans for public projects in Amherst have “languished” in the past decade.

Federal money for the riverside park project has been sitting in Washington, D.C., under the watchful eye of Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Sixth District. Tucker said the county, with Goodlatte’s help, had qualified for a federal grant through a transportation funding act in the 1990s.

The federal grant, along with a gift of the land, means the county won’t have to put up any local dollars for the park — a good deal for any locality that can get it.

Trails on the site could connect with the Amherst portion of the Blackwater Creek Trail that crosses the James by way of Percival’s Island and continues on to the Amherst side of the river. Tucker said the county has approved contracts to begin construction work on the trails.

The county should not let this proposal for a recreational park along the James River languish. The park has the potential to be a nice complement to the Bluffwalk development across the river in Lynchburg.

By making the James River more accessible, the Amherst park will add substantially to the quality of life for those living in Madison Heights and other parts of the county. The plans have been sitting on the shelf long enough. It’s time to get on with the park project.