Tweetsie plan given green light

BOONE (Winston-Salem Journal) - Watauga County commissioners unanimously approved an incentives agreement yesterday to keep Tweetsie Railroad open.

The county will pay $3.15 million -- money that it will eventually recover, with interest -- to resolve a long-standing land issue that threatened to close the family-owned theme park, which is an anchor for millions of dollars in county tourism spending.

The train runs across land that the park does not own but leases. Rising property values mean that two minority owners of the leased property are no longer willing to lease land to Tweetsie when they could sell or develop it for much more money.