HAMLET — More trail improvements are coming to City Lake.
On the recommendation of City Manager John Terziu, the Hamlet City Council voted Tuesday to spend the remaining funds from a 2023 grant on extending the west side of the trail.
Hamlet was awarded a $400,000 Rural Transformation grant from the N.C. Department of Commerce in 2023. Funding for the grant and others like it came from the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021.
Terziu said about half of the funding has already been spent, including the purchase of the old VFW building near the lake and for engineering.
The city has about 14 months — until December of 2026 — to expend the rest of the funds, according to Terziu.
The city manager said there is still needed land acquisition as well as an issue with wetlands on the east side of the lake.
Due to time constraints, Terziu suggested to focus on extending the west side of the trail to the location of the proposed bridge, with the remaining grant funds and use a phased approach for the rest of the project as funding becomes available.
“It’s going to be a multi-year project,” Terziu said.
The second phase will be constructing the trail on the east side of the lake and the third phase will be the bridge, which Terziu said would be the most expensive at an early estimate of around $800,000.
Terziu estimated that the final price tag for the project will be between $1.5 million and $2 million —“If we can get it that cheap,” he said, echoing Councilman Oscar Sellers.
The trail extension is part of a Master Plan for City Lake approved by the Hamlet City Council in 2019 during the administration of Jonthan Blanton, who was city manager at the time.
Renovations to City Lake have been an ongoing project. In 2019, the city:
The city has been hosting been hosting a pop-up market with food and craft vendors at City Lake since 2024. The event his held on the first Saturday of each month, April-November.
There are two left for this year: Nov. 1 and Nov. 29. The latter will be a Holdiay Market.
