The vandalized, charred restrooms in the Waynesville Recreation Park will soon get a long-awaited facelift.

 A million acres of national forests sounds like a lot, and indeed it is. But consider the 8.6 million people who visit the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests every year and those vast green swaths that checker any map of Western North Carolina don’t seem quite so big after all.

Waynesville leaders have committed to foot the bill for the long-held dream of a skateboard park — and it will receive help from an unexpected place.

After years of pinning their hopes on grants and private fundraising that only partially materialized, town leaders have now decided they must move forward with the construction of a public skate park or kill the idea all together. The town board discussed what to do about the skate park at a daylong annual planning session last week. And, fortunately for local skateboarders, the town has said it will fund the project no matter what.

“I sort of like the idea of being able to hang our hat on (the skate park investment),” said Alderman Wells Greeley. “We are going to have parents who will bring their kids over to Waynesville for the day. This falls in the category of what I call good growth.”

Alderman Gary Caldwell has been advocating for a skateboard park for 15 years and was the most vocal board member when discussing the skate park last week.

“I know I am asking a lot,” Caldwell said. But, Caldwell said he wouldn’t stop lobbying for it.

“It’s not a dying issue,” he said.

Plans for the park continually stalled during the past decade as the town struggled to find financing for the project.

“I think it’s something that has been wavering too long,” said Alderwoman Julia Freeman.

Freeman said the town should support projects that benefit kids and get them active.

That’s exactly what the town did in 2010, when it put up $30,000 to hire a consultant to design a skate park in collaboration with ideas from local skateboarders.

The price tag to build a skate park was pegged at $325,000. The town has amassed almost $137,000 toward the cost: a $60,000 grant from the N.C. Parks and Rec Trust Fund, a $20,000 grant from the Waynesville Kiwanis Club and another $40,000 committed by the town itself.

With blueprints for a skate park in hand, the town hoped it would kick-start fundraising, but only $5,000 in private donations has been raised in the past year.

That leaves the town $190,000 short to fund the project.

If the town continues to postpone the project, the cost will inevitably increase with inflation.

“The longer the delay, the higher the price — for the same thing,” said Alderman LeRoy Robinson.

A facilitator from the Southwestern Commission who was running the town’s planning meeting tossed out the idea of scaling back the project and thereby reducing the cost. But, town board members did not seem receptive to that idea.

“If you scale it back, you are going to reduce the challenge, and that is part of the draw of something like this,” Robinson said. “If they don’t feel it is a challenge, they will be back on the street.”

Skateboarding on town sidewalks and most streets is illegal, and violators could be fined $50 or, even worse, have their board taken away. But, that doesn’t mean kids aren’t doing so when no one is watching.

“That has been a major issue,” Caldwell said. “It’s a nuisance.”

The park will give those kids a free place within walking distance of downtown to skateboard legally.

The design for the skate park, developed by Spohn Ranch Skateparks from California, includes bleachers for spectators, at least four ramps and a raised platform with rails, among other features.

“To be honest with you, I’ve been trying to do this forever and ever, but I never envisioned it to look like this. This is amazing,” Caldwell said.

Although the town is building the skate park, it will not staff it, limiting its liability in the event of an accident. Once the park is complete, the town could host competitions there, which would draw visitors and their checkbooks.

As luck would have it, money materializes

As the Waynesville town board grappled with where it would find $190,000 to fund the remaining balance of a skateboard park, it realized somewhat accidentally it was staring a new source of revenue in the face.

At the same meeting where the skate park was discussed last week, the town also took up the issue of whether to start charging fees for controversial sweepstakes machines as several other towns in the region do.

The board agreed in an epiphany moment that recreation would be an appropriate use the new income.

It would likely not be enough to fund all that is needed, however. Maggie Valley and Canton currently tax the sweepstakes machines in their respective towns. Maggie collects $8,250 a year, while Canton rakes in nearly $32,000 each year.

If you can’t beat ‘em, then you can at least benefit from ‘em.

Waynesville officials are considering joining the growing ranks of towns that impose fees on businesses that operate sweepstakes machines, a recent reincarnation of the previously outlawed video gambling.

“This board has always taken the position that one, these things are illegal; and two, we are not going to tax something that is illegal,” said Waynesville Town Manager Lee Galloway during a long-range town planning meeting last week.

The controversial machines have been through an “Are they? Are they not?” legal battle during the past few years as state legislators continue to try to outlaw sweepstakes machines and as proponents of the contraptions continue to find loopholes in the law.

“We’ve been back and forth on this a number of times,” Galloway said.

However, with no end in sight, Waynesville has decided to jump on the bandwagon. If they are going to exist anyway, why not benefit from them?

“There are folks out there that are going to find their way around (the law no matter what),” Galloway said.

At the same meeting, town leaders were grappling with where they would find money to build a skateboard park. During their talks about the sweepstakes machines, they realized they could kill two birds with one stone.

Aldermen decided to move forward with fees on sweepstakes machines to fund the skate park and other recreation initiatives.

“I think the idea of funding recreational activities would be appropriate,” said Alderman LeRoy Robinson.

The discussion led board members to another question: How much can the town charge?

Maggie Valley and Canton currently tax the sweepstakes machines in their respective towns. Both demand $2,500 for the first four machines and charge $750 for each subsequent machine. Maggie collects $8,250 a year, while Canton makes in nearly $32,000 each year. The town of Franklin makes $10,000 a year.

Galloway said that Waynesville will likely charge similar amounts. But, it could see higher benefits given the town’s larger size and potentially larger establishments.

A sweepstakes poker café opened on South Main in June 2010, and recently, two people have come into the police department asking for permits to start operations with as many as 40 to 60 machines — meaning that the new fee could be a boon for the town.

“According to Canton and Maggie Valley, they are standing in line to register machines,” said Bill Hollingsed, Waynesville’s chief of police.

No machine owners would be exempt from the new tax; no one will be grandfathered in. Waynesville will issue decals, which people can display on their sweepstakes machines, indicating that the device has undergone the proper inspection.

“They (machine owners) will not argue with that,” said Mayor Gavin Brown.

Future up in the air

While the fees could be a boon, it’s unclear just how long- or short-lived the fees could be. The sweepstakes machines could be outlawed, this time for good, once an appeal works its way through the state courts.

The General Assembly first banned video gambling in 2007. It didn’t take long before so-called “sweepstakes” cropped up as an alternative. Lawmakers viewed the sweepstakes as a reincarnation of video gambling under a different name, designed to circumvent the previous ban. So, the General Assembly went back to the drawing board and passed another ban in 2010 aimed at putting sweepstakes cafés out of business as well. But, lawsuits challenging the ban have allowed the games to continue.

“They found one judge in Greensboro, I think, who found one part of the law and said ‘Well, no, maybe this is not illegal,’” Galloway said.

The ambiguity, meanwhile, has left local law enforcement officers caught in the middle and confused about whether sweepstakes machines operating in their counties are illegal or not.

“The video poker law is unenforceable,” Hollingsed said. “It puts us in a bad position.”

Any gambling machine connected to the Internet is caught in limbo, and law enforcement officials cannot fine or arrest their owners without fear of being held in contempt themselves.

“It is very frustrating for us, I assure you,” Hollingsed said.

The only machines that are definitely illegal are stand-alone devices, including the Lucky Seven and Pot O’ Gold, which are not connected to the Internet.

“Those machines are clearly still illegal,” Hollingsed said.

A discussion regarding the fate of old restrooms at the Waynesville Recreation Park has prompted town officials to take another look at its recreation master plan.

The recreation advisory committee will not just look at renovating the run-down and often vandalized restrooms but also consider the “wider use of that area,” said Assistant Town Manager Alison Melnikova.

The town wants to replace the old restrooms located between the Waynesville playground and tennis courts off Marshall Street. The brick bathhouse dates back to the town’s former outdoor pool, which was bulldozed 10 years ago.

The restrooms have been vandalized several times over the years, and despite frequent cleanings of the facilities, the inside of the restrooms were usually trashed with graffiti and occasionally the sinks and fixtures were ripped off the walls. The state of the bathrooms have been a source of complaints from the public.

In May, arsonists set the restrooms on fire. The town received about $97,000 in insurance money as a result. It could go a long way toward renovating the restrooms and adjacent maintenance storage.

“With some work, we feel that it is possible that the building might be converted for year-around restrooms and that perhaps the other space could be renovated and used for storage or even meetings for clubs or groups connected with various recreation programs,” Town Manager Lee Galloway wrote in a report for the board of aldermen earlier this month.

The town board decided to hold off on moving ahead with renovations to the restrooms, however, and instead revisit long-range plans for the park through the recreation master plan.

Currently, a chain-link fence surrounds the restrooms, and the town has put out port-a-johns for people to use instead.

The town’s master plan was created in 2006 and details possible improvements to Waynesville’s parks. The plan would turn the area near the dilapidated restrooms into a putt-putt course and indoor tennis facility.

The parks and recreation department plans to hold a public forum early next year to discuss the master plan and possible updates to the town parks system.

“The park has looked like that, as you see it, for at least 10 years,” said Rhett Langston, executive director of the Waynesville Recreation Center. “It’s certainly nothing due to lack of planning.”

However, the parks and recreation is not designed to earn much money, Langston said, and a good portion of the department’s budget has gone toward building and running the new recreation center, including purchasing new equipment and replacing the roof.

When asked to paint a picture of a dream vacation she would like to take, 68-year-old Hazel Wells began conjuring her image of an airplane en route to Hawaii. With impressive depth and detail, she incorporated her favorite color, blue, and flowers across the bottom.

Wells and other artists who are part of LIFESPAN have become professionals, selling and displaying their work at venues such as the Waynesville Recreation Center and Twigs and Leaves Gallery in downtown Waynesville.

LIFESPAN provides education, employment and enrichment opportunities to children and adults with developmental disabilities. Since 1973, the organization has grown from its roots in Charlotte to 20 locations from Haywood to Alamance counties. LIFESPAN started a creative campus in 2010, introducing clients to art, horticulture, and health and wellness enrichment programs.

Pamela Hjelmeir, the arts assistant of the LIFESPAN Creative Campus in Waynesville, started building the arts program on a local level a year ago. With an art degree from the University of Florida, Hjelmeir had plenty of ideas to inspire the participants.

She has introduced several artistic elements including painting, weaving, drawing and mixed media. Although many participants are non verbal, art allows them to communicate through creativity and illustrate their passions and thoughts.

“Everyone has their own special gifting and their own special talent,” Hjelmeir said. “We all have our weaknesses, but we all have unique contributions to make. You have to look beyond the disability and look at the ability of somebody.”

During the summer of 2010, Hjelmeir worked closely with participants to create art to sell to the community and raise awareness about LIFESPAN’s mission. Their debut appearance was at a booth at the International Festival Day during Folkmoot last July.

Having their work on display is a source of excitement and pride for the participants, who now consider themselves working artists after selling several pieces at various events.

In addition to the gallery showings, LIFESPAN art was used on the Thanksgiving cards for the Haywood County Arts Council. Many participants won blue ribbons for their crafts at the Haywood County Fair and often show their work at state shows in Charlotte and at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Carrie Keith, an owner of Twigs and Leaves, was so impressed with the artworks’ level of professional appeal she purchased one of her own – a vibrant painting of a tractor. She hung it proudly in the room where her grandson sleeps when he comes over.

“I think it has a lot of fun color,” Keith said. “It’s amazing the talent they possess.”  

In March the Waynesville Recreation Center mounted several pieces of their art along the walls facing the new fitness equipment on the second floor. Having LIFESPAN artist’s work at the fitness center has been an effective way to expose the organization to the community and ties into the program’s encouragement of health and wellness.

Each piece of art is priced competitively and fairly in regards to other arts and crafts being sold in the community.

“It’s not as though just because they have a disability we should lower the price,” Hjelmeir said. “It’s very fairly priced, and I have the responsibility to make sure that we protect their interest. They work very hard on these projects.”

In their studio at the LIFESPAN building, Hjelmeir combines group art activities and one-on-one instruction for each of the students involved. While group activities provide a fun atmosphere, one-on-one work allows participants to push their goals and show what they can do individually.

Robert Rogers is also a representational painter with a fascination with farms. His art is full of detailed fences, farm tools, animals and barns, one of which sold at Waynesville’s recent Whole Bloomin Thing Festival. He also admits a love for working with beads and weaving.

Stacey Delancey takes a more abstract approach to her work. She enjoys interactive projects and is drawn to mixed media. During instruction, Hjelmeir sometimes offers suggestions for color mixing and layering and helps them rinse off the paint brush between colors, but otherwise allows the students to create their unique vision.

“We don’t want to box in their creativity and say there is a prescribed formula because there is none,” Hjelmeir said. “It’s individualized just as much as they are.”

Participant Kenneth Grant creates most of his art around political themes and has painted presidential portraits of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as well as military tanks and war arsenals.

Hjelmeir tries to organize regular field trips for the students to inspire their art. Some of these include swimming at Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center and the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute.

LIFESPAN relies on grant money and monetary donations from supporters to purchase art and craft supplies. They are always looking for opportunities to show the work of the artists.

In the annual report for 2010, LIFESPAN reported that it had sold 1,125 pieces of participant’s art from all the communities totaling $21,667 over two years.

Hjelmeir is currently working to create digital portfolios of each student’s work and hopes to create an online store to sell each piece.

— By DeeAnna Haney • SMN Intern

The Cashiers Recreation Center is back on track following a unanimous vote this week by Jackson County commissioners to move forward with the $8 million project.

Commissioners voted to use money from the county’s fund balance instead of taking out a loan, and to hire a professional cost estimator to figure out the bottom-line price tag.

Current estimates are based on blueprints that have been on the shelf since 2006. If anything, given the crash of the construction market since then, Jackson County can anticipate a probable improvement on the original guesstimates.

The county already has spent about $3 million on the project in the past five years getting a site ready. County Manager Chuck Wooten said a fire-pump station is still needed to ensure future sprinklers have the water to operate. But otherwise, he said, the county is about ready to go through a punch (or to-do list) for that part of the project.

Cashiers’ recreation center has been a sore point for that community, which is isolated by virtue of geography. The residents in that area shoulder the bulk of Jackson County’s tax base, but often complain of seeing little return for their dollars.

The project hit environmental snags (the site is in the protected headwaters of the Chatooga River), which triggered correspondingly higher costs. The county had to pay an additional $900,000 for site work between 2006 and 2008 to comply with the regulatory demands.

The project almost hit another potential roadblock when Chairman Jack Debnam shied at designating the fund balance as the source of funding. He said he wanted more time to study whether the county might be better off taking out a loan. With Wooten saying commissioners couldn’t move forward at this time without detailing where they’d get the money from, and a motion from Commissioner Mark Jones, a resident of Cashiers, already on the table, Debnam voted “yes,” too.

Living in Cashiers has certain perks: There is a beautiful lake to play on, gorgeous homes to live in and lovely vistas to enjoy. There also are nice restaurants, great gift shops and even an upscale Ingles grocery store that is the envy of residents in the much larger town of Sylva, who are afforded considerably fewer shopping selections at their smaller, scaled-down version.

But there’s a price to pay for living in Cashiers, both literally — because of high land prices — and figuratively. You’ve got to drive “off the mountain,” as the locals here say, for most shopping and to enjoy other amenities — and to work out.

Unless, that is, you’re made of sterner stuff than most. Which Rebecca Smith must certainly be — because she tries to swim for exercise three times a week (during the warmer months) in nearby Lake Glenville.

Smith, however, said she’d welcome a recreation center, and hopes Jackson County commissioners follow through on building it. Not so much for her personal use, but for the kids who live in the community, and for the younger people here in general. Friday at 1:30 p.m., the commission board will hold a meeting at the Cashiers library to discuss the possibility. Smith noted down the time and place. She’s going to try to be there.

Smith is a member of the Glenville community club, and on this day, was volunteering at the group’s thrift shop alongside N.C. 107. Her husband is currently the club’s president.

During a recent meeting, Smith said, group members were discussing how best to keep the community’s young people from leaving the area. Take her own grandchildren for example, who went to nearby Blue Ridge School but then “couldn’t wait to get out of here,” she said.

“‘What’s here for us?’ they said. And, that’s true,” Smith conceded.

There are a few options for the recreationally minded when they don’t want to hike or swim in the lake. Cashiers residents can motor over to neighboring Highlands and use the fitness center there; they can drive down to the Jackson County Recreation Center in Cullowhee. Either way, though particularly if heading to Cullowhee, they are dealing with a windy, slow, two-lane road. Depending on where a person lives in Cashiers, it can easily take 30 minutes or more to get there.

There is one more option, and oddly enough, it was exactly what Zac and Jama Koenig were, just that morning, discussing the possibility of doing. The couple was picnicking Saturday in the Village Green with their daughter, Emma, and her friend, Addie. The Village Green is a community park paid for and built by people living in this community.

Even with the park, “unless you are a member of a club, there’s nowhere to do anything,” Jama Koenig said. “There’s nowhere to go to be fit.”

The solution this couple and many other Cashiers residents are forced to settle on? Buying a small “amenities” lot in the Country Club in Sapphire Valley, down around the Jackson-Transylvania county line, so that they can use the facilities.

The fitness club at Sapphire is 3,600 square feet, offering both cardio- and weight-training equipment. There are locker rooms and saunas, and places to play golf and tennis.

Zac Koenig, who runs the family owned Koenig Homebuilders, said the amenities lots generally are priced starting at $2,500. There’s reasons they can’t be built on — no septic, things like that, but buying a lot does allow people to buy their way in to the club.

And, many Cashiers residents are doing exactly that, Jama Koenig said.

Jama and Zac Koenig (he serves on the county’s planning board) represent, in many ways, both ends of a debate that is likely to take place over building a recreation center in Cashiers. A projected $5 million project to serve a selected few in the county, yes, but in a part of the county that is among the most isolated, and which pays the bulk of Jackson’s taxes.

“Our portion of the tax base is huge,” Jana Koenig said. She has no doubt the community needs and deserves a recreation center.

Her husband, however, isn’t so sure, though he’d enjoy having a recreation center nearby.

“I have mixed feelings about it,” Zac Koenig said. “Our area does pay most of the taxes, but in the winter, there’s not many people here.”

That’s because Cashiers’ population is dominated by seasonal residency. Many houses stand vacant during cold-weather months, and the numbers of people in the community plummet.

Plans for the Cashiers Recreation Center

• Approximately 2,500 square feet in size

• Gymnasium for basketball and volleyball

• Eight-foot wide indoor running/walking track

• Fitness equipment area

• Meeting space, kitchen, storage

• Aerobics and dance areas

Source: Jackson County

Jackson County commissioners say it’s high time Cashiers gets its due: an $8 million recreation center as pay back for the disproportional share of property taxes carried by the affluent homeowners there.

Blueprints for a Cashiers recreation center have been ready to roll since 2006. Five years later, the long-promised but yet-to-be delivered recreation center has become a symbol of discontent for Cashiers residents. Cashiers residents frequently claim they are neglected for the off-the-plateau county seat of Sylva and the communities surrounding it.

“They deserve a lot more than they have gotten in the past,” said Charles Elders, a newly elected Jackson County commissioner. “They feel like they have been neglected quite a bit.”

Elders said the recreation center has floundered on the “back burner” but that is about to change.

“I feel it was time to get serious about it and get busy with it,” Elders said.

SEE ALSO: Cashiers, Glenville show their pull in the polls

The county has spent $3 million over the past five years getting the site ready, including water, sewer and grading. All that’s lacking now is construction, estimated at $5 million.

County Chairman Jack Debnam, also a newcome to the board, said it seemed like the county had lost momentum on the project.

“After this site preparation stuff, the building sort of vanished,” Debnam said. “I am not sure what happened and how we got to where we are at.”

Debnam, like Elders, cited the taxes paid by Cashiers and Glenville residents — a product of the higher-priced homes and lots in those communities — as justifying the expense.

“If anything happens as far as any kind of building project, I would like to see that be one of the projects we do,” Debnam said. “It is a project that has been promised evidently for years and other things have always pushed it back.”

But Debnam said other outlying areas of the county — such as Qualla for example — also deserve more.

“People in Jackson County stay so close to their communities they don’t understand the wants and needs of the other communities is what I have found,” Debnam said.

A long and twisted road

Progress on the recreation center was stymied at several turns by a web of environmental permits. Site work hit one setback after another as the county learned of yet another regulatory hoop that had to be jumped through. There were also water and sewer lines to run, and an entrance road to build.

“Progress has been slowly plugging along but nobody has seen a building go vertical,” said Commissioner Mark Jones, who lives in Cashiers.

Trying to explain why it has taken so long has been a “nightmare,” Jones said.

“I would tell people we are going to build it and they would say, ‘Oh yeaaahhhh, suuurrre,’” Jones said.

The site lies in the headwaters of the protected Chattooga River, and thus required stricter-than-usual environmental requirements. The county had to navigate a maze of permits from the Army Corps of Engineers, the N.C. Wildlife Commission, the N.C. Division of Water Quality and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System

At each step, costs ballooned skyward.

“We had to spend a phenomenal amount of money to meet the environmental requirements and permits,” Jones said.

The county ponied up an additional $900,000 for site work between 2006 and 2008 to comply with tougher standards on everything from wetlands to stormwater runoff. Even bringing water and sewer to the site cost more than expected.

Cost overruns did influence the project’s timeline, Jones said.

“As we were spending the extra money, we saw more and more go to site prep and less and less left for the building,” Jones said.

County Manager Chuck Wooten, who just came on board in January, said it is unlikely the former board of commissioners would have kept spending on site work if they didn’t plan to follow through with the project somewhere down the road. In 2007, commissioners took out a $2.7 million loan to cover the site work.

But the drawn-out process and lack of actual construction work left many thinking the project was never going to be completed.

“I do think the folks up there in Cashiers are confused as to why it hadn’t been taken care of,” Wooten said.

Jones said the former board of commissioners were always committed to the project — at least the majority of them were.

Former commissioner Tom Massie said publicly — during a candidate’s forum held in Cashiers no less — that he thought it was unwise to spend the money at this time given the uncertain economic conditions and school funding shortfalls that could lead to layoffs of teachers. Jones said Massie’s honesty in a roomful of Cashiers voters on the eve of the election was admirable, at least.

At the same forum, the three newly elected commissioners pledged support for the recreation center.

Making good on their promise, they asked Wooten to bring them a status report on the project and what it would take to jump start it.

The architect, Dan Duckham of Cashiers, told Wooten plans could be ready to go to bid within two months. The cost estimate stands at $5 million.

Wooten hopes it might not be that much. Builders are hungry for work given the depressed construction market, he said.

“It is a great climate for bidding,” Wooten said.

The county has enough in reserves to pay for construction without borrowing.

Jones said the county once intended to take out a loan for construction but were waiting until this year, Jones said. The county this year will finish making loan payments on the Fairview and Scotts Creek schools, freeing up the county’s debt load.

Wooten instead has recommended tapping the county’s plentiful savings, which stands at roughly $20 million. Commissioners have informally agreed.

The county built up its reserves over the past decade, growing the fund balance by $10 million in the last 11 years, Jones said.

“They were very wise in socking away a considerable amount of money,” Jones said. “You have to give credit to the former county manager and boards of commissioners.”

The recreation center will cost another $330,000 annually for staff, overhead and maintenance, Wooten estimated. Part of that would be offset by memberships.

Jones said the Cashiers recreation center will provide economic stimulus in Cashiers, both creating jobs and spurring investment. People who have bought lots but not yet built their retirement home may now decide to do so thanks to the coming amenity.

Want to go?

Jackson County commissioners will hold a work session to discuss the Cashiers Recreation Center, including a chat with the architect, at 1:30 p.m. Friday, June 3, at the Cashiers library.

Representatives from some of the biggest names in outdoor recreation will soon touch ground in Asheville for the 2010 Outdoor Industry Association’s Rendezvous.

Industry leaders from major brands like Patagonia, The North Face, REI, Merrell, Mountain Hardwear and many more will be flying through the Nantahala River on a whitewater rafting trip and exploring the Smokies by next week.

“The focus of the international outdoor industry will be on our region,” Sutton Bacon, CEO of the Nantahala Outdoor Center, which is hosting the conference.

Bacon and his peers say they hope the Rendezvous will encourage national and international businesses to open up shop in Western North Carolina.

“I think the WNC outdoor industry is certainly rolling out the red carpet,” Bacon said.

The major outdoor conference comes on the heels of Asheville being chosen as the site for a listening session as part of President Barack Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative earlier this year.

“It’s a validation of the kind of mountain lifestyle that Western North Carolina offers,” said Mark Singleton, executive director of Cullowhee-based American Whitewater.

Christine Fanning, executive director of the Outdoor Foundation, said the Smoky Mountains are iconic for the outdoor industry.

WNC is home to the most visited national park in the country, and two of the most heavily visited national forests in the country, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail. The region also serves as headquarters to major outfitters and outdoor retailers in the country.

“If there is a hub of outdoor recreation in the east, Asheville arguably can lay claim to it,” said Frank Hugelmeyer, president and CEO of the Outdoor Industry Association.

Boost from recession

A major focus of the OIA Rendezvous will be to gauge the direction the U.S. outdoor industry is headed.

Since outdoor recreation tends to be more affordable than the typical vacation, the recession has actually driven more Americans outside than before.

At Mast General Store in Waynesville, employee Jay Schoon said the economic downturn has indeed brought a boom in business.

We’ve been having one of the best years, if not the best year, that we’ve ever had,” said Schoon, who has worked in the WNC outdoor industry for almost 20 years.

During tough economic times, the relatively low cost of outdoor activities holds clear appeal.

“When you look at hiking, all you need are a pair of shoes and a backpack,” Hugelmeyer said.

Fanning said connecting with nature can also provide physical, emotional and spiritual benefits and a healthy escape from the bad news of the day.

“People really are realizing outdoor recreation is something that can sort of disconnect you from the realities of today,” Fanning said.

Statistics also show that Americans are also opting for shorter outings. Rather than setting out for a week-long backpacking trip, they will take a day hike, mountain bike or go river rafting over the same period.

“The American is becoming a consummate sampler,” Hugelmeyer said.

Still, millions of Americans have yet to step into the great outdoors.

One point to drive across to these consumers, according to Fanning, is that reconnecting with nature doesn’t have to be an expensive or complicated affair.

“You don’t necessarily need to save up and have a once a year or once a lifetime trip to Yosemite,” Fanning said. “You can be right in your backyard.”

With the American population mostly gravitating toward cities and suburbs, Hugelmeyer said OIA hopes there will be great investment in urban parks, not just national parks.

Reaching out to youth

According to OIA, 90 percent of people who participate in outdoor activities now started between the ages of 5 and 18. Children who grew up camping, hiking and biking are more likely to continue as adults. Those who stayed inside as kids likely won’t take up backpacking as adults.

But OIA has found that there is a significant decline in the number of young people participating in outdoor activities. With more technological options for entertainment, youngsters are opting to stay inside. Kids cite lack of time, lack of interest and too much schoolwork as reasons for not getting outdoors more often.

Parents may have to shoulder much of the blame for that.

“Too many find it convenient to park a child in front of a TV set or computer screen,” Hugelmeyer said.

Melanee Lester, manager of Mast General Store in Waynesville, says that kids are often interested in the outdoors but don’t have the support of the parents.

Fanning and Hugelmeyer point out that more outdoor recreation for kids could provide tangible benefits, including better grades, closer family relationships and major health benefits. Those who appreciate the outdoors will also care about conservation and being good environmental stewards.

More outdoor activity could also curb the obesity crisis in the country.

“It’s a very small investment to head off what will be a very large medical bill later on,” Hugelmeyer said.

According to Fanning, the solution will come once parents are given the skills, information and confidence to schedule outdoor activities, and young people are empowered and inspired.

“At the end of the day, this is about parents and families taking personal responsibility to take their kids out,” Hugelmeyer said.

“For all of us who have a passion for the outdoors, we also have a responsibility to pass that passion to the next generation,” Fanning said.

By the numbers*

Participation

• 48.6 percent of Americans ages 6 and older participated in outdoor recreation.

• Americans made an estimated 11.16 billion outdoor excursions in 2008.

Spike in outdoor activities

• Hiking up by 9 percent

• Camping up by 7 percent.

• Backpacking up by 19 percent.

• Mountain biking up by 10.2 percent.

• Trail running up by 15.2 percent.

Youth less interested

• 6 percent drop in people ages 6-17 participating in outdoor recreation. This number has dropped by 16.7 percent in the previous 3 years.

Most popular activities by participation rate

1. Freshwater, saltwater and fly-fishing: 17 percent of Americans.

2. Car, backyard and RV camping: 15 percent of Americans.

3. Running, jogging and trail running: 15 percent of Americans.

4. Road biking, mountain biking and BMX: 15 percent of Americans.

5. Hiking – 12 percent of Americans.

*Statistics from the Outdoor Industry Association study conducted in 2009.