HomeMy Public PortalAbout20131106 - Upper Charles Trail Committee - Meeting Minutes1
UPPER CHARLES TRAIL COMMITTEE
Wednesday, November 6, 2013 7:10 PM
Room 211, Town Hall, 18 Main St., Hopkinton, MA
MINUTES
Members present: Bob Snyder, Jeff Barnes, Ken Parker, Eric Sonnett, Jane Moran
Members absent: John Mosher, Mike Resteghini
Others present: Craig Della Penna, NE Greenways Solutions; Kathy Buckley, Barry
Rosenbloom, Gary Trendel
1. Craig Della Penna, NE Greenways Solutions, made a slide presentation to the committee.
Craig has helped to organize, expedite, and monitor a number of bike trail projects in the
northeast. He noted that approximately 200 projects are underway now in central
Massachusetts. He also pointed out that in a circle centered at Worcester MA with a radius
of 50 miles, lie more retired or “dead” rail beds than any other region of the country of
similar size. Railroads have a long history in New England.
2. Kathy Buckley spoke about Feasibility Study services that she and others can provide. All
Feasibility Studies will look at crossings and estimated use, among other matters. She
pointed out that the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is a possible option for this
service that is free. However if we choose this option, we are likely to wait for two years in
their queue. Jeff noted that we shouldn’t be willing to tolerate that long of a wait as we have
estimated an expense of $10K to $15K for this effort, making the time much more valuable.
Eric suggested that we find out who represents Hopkinton on the MPO and ask them how
long it will take to get MPO assistance. The committee agreed to act on Eric’s suggestion.
3. Ken asked Craig if he could advise how to acquire land for trails. Craig discussed a model
that has worked for his projects. In this model, a Friends group becomes the financiers of big
pieces of land. A separate land trust type of organization becomes an intermediate owner of
the piece, purchased by the Friends group. Then the town takes the property from the land
trust by eminent domain, and the title is cleared.
4. Ken pointed out the UCTC mission statement and asked each committee member to be
prepared to talk more about it at the next meeting.
5. A brief discussion of setting up the 501C (Friends group) took place.
6. Jeff has submitted our budget request to Elaine. She will forward it to the town CFO.
7. The draft minutes of the 10/16/13 meeting were unanimously accepted as submitted.
8. Meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM.
2
Approved: November 20, 2013
Documents used at the meeting:
Meeting agenda
Draft Minutes of 11/6/13 meeting