KAREN CRAGNOLIN PARK GREENWAY Phase Breaking Ground
Cragnolin retired from RiverLink in 2016 after 30 years. Initially, Cragnolin butted heads with some developers and river area property owners, but they came around to respect her passion and abilities.
Charles Worley, who served as Asheville’s mayor from 2001-05, remembered Cragnolin as a tenacious leader with a clear vision.
“I think her tenacity was the reason she was able to accomplish as much as she was able to accomplish, to the point now where that area continues to grow,” Worley said. FOR MORE
Karen Cragnolin Park is an ambitious vision nearly twenty years in the making. Filling a vital link in Asheville’s growing network of recreational greenways and pollinator highways, the Greenway Phase of this former brownfield will create a new park to memorialize legendary French Broad River advocate and RiverLink founding Executive Director Karen Cragnolin. Tremendous gratitude to the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority and the many generous supporters who brought fundraising for the $1M+ Greenway Phase across the finish line. Construction will begin in March with a community-wide ribbon cutting planned for Summer of 2023.
COMMUNITY, ecology, ENVIRONMENT, sustainability, wnc environment, WNC LEADERSHIP, women leaders