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Home My Public Portal About20191106 - Upper Charles Trail Committee - Meeting Minutes1 UPPER CHARLES TRAIL COMMITTEE Wednesday November 6, 2019 7:01 PM Basement Meeting Room, Town Hall, 18 Main St., Hopkinton, MA MINUTES Members present: Bob Snyder, Jane Moran, Eli Post, Eric Sonnett, Barry Rosenbloom, Ken Parker, Cynthia Esthimer, Jim Ciriello Members absent: John Coutinho 1. VHB Update:  The Massachusetts Trails Grant application form has been revised for 2020. HUCTC and VHB are currently awaiting the revised form, in order to proceed with our application for the campus-trail-connector. VHB is working on a budget to support the application.  Three hundred feet parallel to the Tennessee Gas Line easement in Legacy Farms North continues to be the preferred UCT site location. Negotiations for a shared use of those 300 feet continue between VHB, Legacy Farms North, and Kinder Morgan (Tennessee Gas). Legacy Farms North originally granted the easement to Kinder Morgan. 2. Current year additional spending requirements: Barry presented an HUCTC budget summary that projects the usages for the FY20 budgeted funds. This summary is attached. 3. Liaison reports:  Parks and Recreation – Continuing to finish up the EMC playground.  Town Manager – Norman has asked Eric to update certain town committee chairpersons on the history of the UCT project. Cynthia suggested that we take time at our 11/20/19 meeting to generate our list of talking points.  TCMC – They are still at work on town maps that depict town trails, public town land, town conservation land, etc. They are also looking at trails in the Chamberlain Street and Center School areas. 4. Draft minutes of the 10/2/19 meeting: The public meeting held on 10/2 was recorded in the “Campus Trail Connector” document that is attached. These were approved unanimously, subject to minor typo corrections. 5. Draft minutes of the 10/16/19 meeting: Approved unanimously. 6. Agenda topics for next meeting (11/20/19):  VHB update  Liaison reports  Generate talking points on behalf of the 12/9/19 special town meeting. 10. The public meeting was adjourned at 8:15PM. Approved: November 20, 2019 Documents used at the meeting: Meeting agenda Hopkinton MA Upper Charles Trail Committee Expense for FY20 including FY 19 Encumbrances Campus Trail Connector minutes of 10/2/19 public meeting Draft Minutes of the 10/2/19 and 10/16/19 meetings Campus Trail Connector The Hopkinton Upper Charles Trail Committee is proposing a connecting trail for the Hopkinton High School, Middle School, Hopkins School and the new Marathon Elementary School. The “Campus Trail Connector” will allow students, runners, cyclists and others easy passage between the three schools, as well as the downtown area, for a total length of about 2.5 miles. The section crossing school grounds has been approved by the School Committee, and State funds are being sought to advance engineering and construction. Full details were made available at a public meeting held on October 2, 2019. State funds are being sought to advance engineering and construction, and the meeting was held in support of that application. Following a presentation by VHB, our engineering consultants, of the planning to date, participants were invited to ask questions. What follows are the questions and responses as best as we can recreate them. When will the Campus Trail Connector be built? There are many unknows, especially whether we will be successful in securing the state grant, but under the best circumstance, construction might start in 2022. Will the Connector be part of the proposed Upper Charles Trail extending from Milford to Ashland. The Hopkinton Upper Charles Trail Committee is charged with this undertaking. While this is a stand-alone project, the Committee expects it will eventually become a segment of the Upper Charles Trail providing an 8 mile path through Hopkinton from Milford to Ashland. Plans for the overall Upper Charles Trail are still in planning, but it is anticipated the Connector will either be part of the Trail or, at a minimum, a spur trail. In any case the Select board must approve the final Trail. While a portion of the Campus Trail Connector has been cleared, the entire project is still in early planning and State funds will be requested to conduct a detailed engineering study to determine the exact route, materials and the cost as well as funding sources. The Town does not need a Trail connecting with Milford, and the money should be used for another facility. The State funds we will apply for are designated for trails and can’t be used for other purposes. We would be remiss if we did not take full advantage of potential State funding. How much will this project cost? Cost determination is part of the proposed study, but based on past experience, it is estimated to run about $1 million. The State is expected to pay about 80% of this with the Town match consisting of money already spent plus a Community Preservation allocation. The estimate was developed in a 2016 Feasibility study and includes a 40% contingency as well as a 25% MassDOT Construction Contingency. The design cost estimate amounts to approximately $250K. Why is a connector between schools necessary? Members of the School Community expressed support for the Connector in terms of student safety and shared use of facilities. Moreover the trail would become a significant community facility serving the broader Town community. This segment of trail has been identified by the Town as a good candidate to receive MassTrails funding through their 2020 program. This segment of trail will be an essential link for incorporating the Center Trail into the Upper Charles Trail network. In addition the link from the Town Center at the North end of the Center Trail to the Schools on the South end and beyond to EMC park and the Marathon school will provide the Town with a safe alternatives to the private automobile. The trail will not be used to justify limited school bussing in Town, although we anticipate that implementation of the Campus Connector Trail will have a positive effect on the numbers of children that will be able to walk or use a bicycle to get to school. What will be the surface treatment of the Trail, with many expressing a preference for stone dust. The finished surface of the path has yet to be determined. The proposed design study will tackle this question. It was noted that many considerations go into this decision including: the State may not extend construction funding unless there is a hard surface, stone dust is not suitable for inclined sections, and storm runoff may necessitate hard surface for environmental purposes. It was noted that runners prefer a stone dust trail and that bicycle riding can also be accommodated. However, MassTIP funding requires a bituminous finished trail. Also there are other users to consider including skaters, mothers with strollers, as well as ADA accessibility which will be required by all State and Federal funding agencies. The UCTC will work with all stakeholders to determine the final design including finishes. What happens next? The Hopkinton Upper Charles Trail Committee will be requesting State design funds in February 2020 and will know if successful by the summer of that year. Ideally work would beginning by end of 2020 and would be presented beforehand at another public meeting in 2021. The project area for the proposed grant extends from Hayden Rowe at McDermott Lane to the Center Trail where it intersects with the Loop Road. It should be noted that the charge of the UCT was to develop two alternative alignments of a Shared Use Path through the Town of Hopkinton that extended the existing Upper Charles Trail ending at the Milford Town Line with the Town of Ashland. Unfortunately, a continuous length of the former railroad right of way is no longer available. The UCTC has identified a preferred alignment based on available Town owned parcels. Some acquisition of private parcels will be required and the UCTC has been reaching out to property owners to discuss their willingness to cooperate with their vision. Numerous negotiations for easements are in process. The Town is fully committed to the importance of this trail and if the MassTrails funding does not come through, there are other means of funding the design and construction. Hopkinton MA Upper Charles Trail Committee Expense for FY 20 including FY19 Encumbrances as of 10/21/2019 FY20 Budget FY19 Encumbrance Total Budget Date Submitted Description PO # 200335/Acct# 1001878 578888 Budget Beginning Balance 52,950.00 14,928.42 67,878.42 7/26/19 Ph 1 Conn. VHB Inv 292971 4,903.24 4,903.24 7/26/19 PH 2 ConnVHB Inv 292973 300.00 300.00 8/21/19 VHB In#294479-Outofscope 8&9 6,148.00 6,148.00 8/26/19 PH 1 Conn. VHB Inv#294921 986.53 986.53 8/29/19 Hopk Lumber Inv297953(lock for EchoTrail)38.18 38.18 9/13/19 Jane Moran-Reimb for PolyArt Staples Print 35.25 35.25 9/19/19 Inv 296450 VHB Connector Ph1 389.73 389.73 9/19/19 Inv 296451 VHB Connector Ph2 473.88 473.88 9/21/19 Mike Boelsen remove barrier,cut weeds MCD 250.00 250.00 9/26/19 W. King Appraisal-E. Main St parcel/Easements 3,100.00 3,100.00 10/16/19 Reimb Eli Post for Printing for PolyArts,Public Meeting 101.81 101.81 10/21/19 VHB Ph 8&9 Inv 299233 503.84 503.84 10/21/19 VHB Ph 1 Connector Inv 299225 2,101.03 2,101.03 10/21/19 apportion charged to encumbrance for this amt (1,223.20) 1,223.20 - 10/21/19 VHB Ph 2 Connector Inv 299226 2,361.12 2,361.12 - Sub Total Budget Balance 46,185.81 - 46,185.81 - Voted Spending/Contract Balances -Liability - & New items for Discussion - Phase 8-9 2,761.21 2,761.21 Phase 10-11 1,852.89 1,852.89 Connector Ph 1 Bal 499.35 499.35 Connector Ph 2 Bal 165.00 165.00 9/18/19 New Ph VHB Granite St Pre Eng Feasibility 9,900.00 9,900.00 Discuss MOU For Echo-Granite-MWC 2,500.00 2,500.00 Discuss MOU Tennesse Gas 2,500.00 2,500.00 Discuss Granite N. To Town Land to Hughes 9,900.00 9,900.00 SubTotal 30,078.45 - 30,078.45 Total Bgt Balance 16,107.36$ -$ 16,107.36$ Unspent % 30%