NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1977 SESSION

CHAPTER 1023

SENATE BILL 677

AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR THE REHABILITATION OF THE ROANOKE CANAL LOCK HOUSE IN ROANOKE RAPIDS.

Whereas, river transportation was vital in the settlement and growth of North Carolina; and

Whereas, the Roanoke River played a major role in the economic and technological progress of the Roanoke Valley and Southside Virginia; and

Whereas, the navigation canal in Halifax County was constructed by the Roanoke Navigation Company in the 1820's and successfully stimulated trade for more than 20 years until the coming of the railroad; and

Whereas, the canal was utilized as a source of water power for both manufacturing and utilities services in the Roanoke Rapids-Weldon area during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and

Whereas, two brick structures adjacent to the double locks on the canal remain as vestiges of the efforts to advance the industrial and technological capacities of the region; and

Whereas, there is left in North Carolina only a small number of visible reminders of the role played by waterways in the history and development of the State; Now, therefore,

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  There is hereby appropriated from the General Fund to the Division of Archives and History, Department of Cultural Resources, for the fiscal year 1977-78 the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) which will be available to the Halifax County Arts Council for the purpose of a phased program of (1) research, (2) planning, and (3) rehabilitation of the Roanoke Canal Lock building provided an amount of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) is raised and certified by the Halifax County Arts Council for the same purpose; and for the 1978-79 fiscal year the sum of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) which will be available to the Halifax County Arts Council for rehabilitation of the Roanoke Canal Lock building provided an amount of ten thousand dollars ($10,000) is raised and certified by the Halifax County Arts Council for the same purpose. Funds appropriated in this act shall be expended only in accordance with G.S. 121-11 and G.S. 143-31.2.

Sec. 2.  This act shall become effective on July 1, 1977.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 1st day of July, 1977.