Burke County Board of Realtors® Awarded Placemaking Grant to Help Improve Morganton Community
The Burke County Association of Realtors®
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Members of the Burke County Board of Realtors® joined Morganton Mayor Mel Cohen on October 21 for a Chamber ribbon-cutting marking the installation of the first bike rack and fix-it station in the City Hall courtyard.
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received a $2,300.00 Placemaking Micro-Grant from the National Association of Realtors® to help make the Morganton community a better place to live and work by transforming unused public spaces into vibrant community places.
The grant was intended to help Realtor Associations partner with others to plan, organize, implement and maintain placemaking activities in their commu-nities. The board used the funds to install a custom bike rack designed and fabricated by Oak Hill Ironworks and a bicycle fix-it
Realtors partnered with the Morganton Downtown Development Association (DDA) and the City of Morganton’s Main
Street Office on this project titled “Bike
Racks for Downtown Morganton.” This
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Oak Hill Ironworks made the new bike rack that is designed around the The Burke County Association of Realtors® logo of a home
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project was initiated by the DDA earlier this year after receiving complaints from area residents and businesses about not having adequate spaces to securely store bicycles. During the month of June, businesses — including, Brown Mountain Bottleworks, Hamilton Williams Gallery, Bucks Pizza, Small and Martin Orthodontics — teamed up with the DDA to help fundraise for downtown bike racks. Along with these businesses, the B
urke County Board of Realtors® applied for and received a Placemaking grant to assist in the installation of a bike rack and fix-it station in downtown Morganton. Additional bike racks are planned to be installed in the Spring of 2016.
Placemaking grants are awarded to local and state Realtor® associations to help them and their members initiate placemaking projects in the community, like turning a parking lot into a farmer’s market or a vacant lot into a playground. Realtor® associations and their Realtor® members are actively engaged in the community and know the neighborhoods and the properties that would benefit most from these improvement efforts.
The Burke County Board of Realtors® and the DDA celebrated with a ribbon cutting of the first bike rack and fix-it station installed in downtown on Wednesday, October 21. Guests in attendance were Burke County Chamber of Commerce, Morganton Mayor Mel Cohen, Morganton Trading Company, City of Morganton, Morganton Downtown Development Association and members of the Burke County Board of Realtors®. After the ribbon cutting, everyone was invited to Buck’s Pizza for lunch.
For more information on the Bike Racks for downtown Morganton initiative, please contact Abby Gentry at
828-438-5280. To find out more about National Association of Realtors® placemaking grants visit,
realtoractioncenter.org/Placemaking.
