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Home My WebLink About2015-03-30-GCC-min Greenways Corridor Committee March 30, 2015 Training Room, Hadley DPW Building Lexington, Massachusetts Members Present: Kevin Breunig, Alex Dohan, Eileen Entin, Don Grant, Bob Hausslein, Keith Ohmart, Mike Tabaczynski Other Attendees: none Votes : Minutes approved: 12/15/2014, 1/20/2015, 2/23/2015 Reports/Updates : Bike/Walk/Bus Week will be May 9-17. Bob and Eileen will do walks. There will be a commuter breakfast on May 15 at the Depot. As an incentive to walk, temporary signs will be posted at the Library indicating that it is a 10 minute walk to the Post Office (and other temporary signs around town as well). The new ACROSS brochure is at the printer and will be available by Patriots’Day. All the new route information will be up on the Conservation website. The brochure will be sent home with school families - about 4500. Acrylic holders for the brochure will be placed around town in locations where walkers might see them. GCC is not offering any specific Patriots’Day activities as the trails are likely to still be very muddy, but Kevin has written a press release on new trails and upcoming activities. The Boston Greenbelt Walk will be May 30, and will again utilize ACROSS routes as it goes through Lexington. Kevin is our liaison and Laurel Carpenter is also involved. It will go the opposite direction from last year. Keith reported that the crossing at Lowell and Westminster Streets won’t be moved, but safety improvements will be made, including moving a utility pole. The crosswalk will be at the LexFarm parking area and will be done by the DPW in summer 2015. Current Business Review : Keith and others - Eileen? Bob? - will meet with Karen Mullins on 4/1/2015 to discuss the Strategic Plan and the Budget. The Community Preservation Act funds available should cover the budget needs. Available funds for FY 2014 and 2015 will cover the next 25 miles of ACROSS development and the acrylic brochure holders. Funds for FY2016 are presently unassigned, but are enough for another 20 miles or a different project, such as safety signs - approximately $5800. We will also need to print new brochures in the future. The present printing of 12,000 cost about $1700. Keith pointed out the the additional cost for the rectangular trail marking signs over the square ones - about 50 cents more apiece, or roughly $3.00 instead of $2.50 - isn’t enough to force us to switch back to the square signs, given the present budget. We need to have trail signposts delivered by the end of June/the fiscal year. Discussion over which length screws to order, for use of future signs and to replace worn/rusted ones. It was decided to get 70% long ones and 30% short ones. CPA funds may be spent on materials for signage. Keith has updated our Route Planning Outline to list the most likely routes at the top and has made a map of proposed future routes. We have approximately 29 miles of ideas. Tom Whelan will coordinate the Shire Trail Planning, now that the easement has been passed and signed. Various documents have been placed in Dropbox for easy access by all GCC members and for Archiving. Try to get out to go over some of the routes for discussion at our May 4 meeting, especially the Bikeway to Battle Road route. Can we get it to go easily by the Hayden Recreation Centre? The Rick Abrams Memorial event will be held on June 14. There will be a Route B walk and a dedication ceremony. A site has been proposed for a bench in his memory at Dunback Meadow. We reviewed the Criteria List of 6 elements and refined the definitions. These will be used as we review proposed routes. As Jordan McCarron and Karen Mullins work with the Conservation Stewards to plan the 2015 work list, it would be helpful for them to know which routes we will be developing. The Bikeway-to-Battle Road appears to be the most feasible. There is an easement between Martingale and Fremont, thought a trail needs to be built. Further south, the Cranberry Hill trail needs re-building and buckthorn clearing. We should probably develop a protocol for creating/building a route. This will be useful as we work forward on the next routes. Next Meeting : May 4, 2015, 4:30-6:00pm, DPW Training Room Future meeting dates: June 15 Proposed meeting dates for the rest of 2015 and the beginning of 2016: Sept 28, Oct 26, Nov 23, Dec 21, Jan 25, Feb 22, Mar 28, Apr 25, May 23, June 27 Pending Matters: - Conservation Restriction Data Base Respectfully Submitted by Alexandra Dohan, Secretary