Hinesburg Trails Committee Minutes

Updated: 7/21/09

Date:  Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Place:  Hinesburg Town Hall

Time:  7:00 PM

Attending:  Colin McNaull, Cathy Ryan – Prospective New Trails Committee Member, Greg LeRoy, Launa Lagasse, Martha Keenan, Lenore Budd, Jason Reed, David Raphael of Landworks and a Professor at UVM whose RM-138 Course, Design of Parks, Public Space, Recreation; may be able to help Trails Committee meet its goals in a shorter period of time.

Absent: Stewart Pierson on vacation

Last meeting’s comments accepted and approved by email

We returned $51.42 to the town as unused portion of our $500.00 budget after purchasing $127.00 of signage for future use.  We have used all of our privately raised funding.

There is interest in using this budget to acquire a more user friendly GPS unit that would include a topographic map of Hinesburg for trail mapping and updating purposes.  The Garmin 72 units kindly loaned to us by the Hinesburg Community School do not have this capability and are harder to use than current GPS units available on the market.  There may be a potential problem with using the software that would come with this unit., i.e. how many computers could you put the software on under the software’s licensing provision.  Lenore suggested we explore a mini grant process that would pay for the unit as well and will get us the info to start this process which may not be completed until June/July 2010.  Colin would like to preserve some of the funds if we proceed on our own for charrette refreshments but Lenore pointed out that we could bake these ourselves and this was the group consensus.

Scouting missions were conducted on a route through the northern Fred Johnson Wildlife Management area from Lincoln Hill Road to the Hollow Road.  On June 20 Colin took an easterly route south to find a route and on July 12, Colin, Lenore, and Cathy Ryan took a westerly route south which was easier.  Both routes ended at the same exit point, an old ford that had been in previous use by ATVs.  There does not seem to be a southern exit point to the Hollow Road that does not cross Hollow Brook.  Cathy Ryan is in process of preparing a track that she took on her GPS unit.

New Members and recruitment - We currently have three people who have formally requested membership to the Trails Committee.  They are Cathy Ryan who attended and participated in this meeting, Christopher Duca, and Robert Kennett.  The Selectboard will make the appointments at their July 20^th meeting.  Those who are not selected by the Selectboard are more than welcome to participate in the mission of the Trails Committee ex oficio.

Establishing formal partners to network with them in a regular and systematic way was brought up again and we need a committee person to move this forward.  Now we need to complete the spreadsheet for these contacts and the mailing list that will get information out to them in a timely manner

            Selectboard

            Town Administrator

            Conservation Committee

            Zoning

            Development Review Board

            VAST

            FOTW

            Four Wheelers

            LHTF – LaPlatte Headwaters Town Forest

            Hinesburg Town Forest

            Ancient Roads Committee

Colin reported no movement on his Equine Census update project.

The committee briefly discussed whether or not it should put out trail advisories on the Front Page Forums and our website as the Friends of the Wheel does for its trails.  This needs to be revisited at our August meeting.

Lenore, a member the LaPlatte Headwaters Town Forest Committee said she would give us an update on their progress at our next meeting.  They meet the next day and one item on their agenda was Adam Burritt’s interest in selling a portion of his land that would enable the town to own a complete corridor of land connecting the LHTF and HCS.  The committee supports this but is not sure how it would fit into this process.  There was a discussion of what type of trail, if any, could be put through the area to allow access in non winter months. 

This led to a discussion of Launa’s review of the work that she has done in this area as well as her offer to mow any paths that may be established in the LHTF in the future and to the bridge that crosses the LaPlatte from the Hinesburg Community School to the south.  Launa’s memory concerning the bridge is better than Colin’s.  The entrance going across is fine.  Getting off the bridge at the other end is not.

Assistance from and collaboration with UVM

The rest of the meeting involved the committee members give and take with David Raphael, the principal of Landworks, a Middlebury company who has helped make many of the maps that the town uses in its town planning and a professor at UVM who teaches “RM 138 - Park & Recreation Design: Recreation design methodology applied to the design of public and private recreational facilities.”  David also brought copies of his RM 138 syllabus.

David expects to have about 40 students, mostly juniors in his fall class, who are divided into to two labs of 20 students each.  He supervises independent studies for the winter class.

Greg Leroy outlined the committee’s need to get ready for a town meeting in December 2009 that would make use of the charrette process to give the town a better idea for future trails.  David mentioned a book titled “With People in Mind” which might be appropriate for his students to use in conjunction when working with Hinesburg.

The use of surveys, using Survey Monkey, in conjunction of getting ready for a charrette was discussed.  Our December presentation goal would be at the same time that UVM students are involved with their other exams.  Follow on work could be conducted by students interested in doing independent study.  Jason pointed out that we only have a very limited budget but David did not think that this would be a problem.

Committee needs to come up with a way to work with the Select Board, Planning, Zoning, and Town Administration concerning the impact on people’s time that this project could entail.

Martha pointed out that the committee’s customers are the people of Hinesburg.  Also trails help to make life better in Hinesburg.  The charrette and survey process will be a way of asking the town what they would like to have in the future.

Jason also mentioned that some of the students could be involved in the design of trail head signage, etc.

The work we are hoping to get from the UVM students needs to provide closure for them by setting the stage for their future work.

David feels that there is a fit between the needs of his students and the Trails Committee but the Trails Committee needs to further refine its desire into a more formal RFQ to assist David in planning for his students and for the Committee to meet our mutual goals.  The “retired” members, Stewart and Colin, will be asked to provide some of the extra time that will be needed in furthering this progress.

The Trails Committee, by using email exchanges, needs to come up with this focused format by our August 19^th meeting when we meet with David again.

Currently Tabled Items for future discussion and action.

Sub Committees of One or Two

Trail Stewards

Ancient Roads update

Robert’s Rules of Order

It is not clear to the chair if we need to do something about the official Town Center Map or is this issue now moot.

Establishing formal partners to network with them in a regular and systematic way was brought up again and we need a committee person to move this forward.

            Selectboard

            Town Administrator

            Conservation Committee

            Zoning

            Development Review Board

            VAST

            FOTW

            Four Wheelers

            LHTF – LaPlatte Headwaters Town Forest

            Hinesburg Town Forest

            Ancient Roads Committee

Should we start putting out Trail Advisories and other information relating to the Town Trails on a regular basis via Front Page Forum and the town website?  Specifically, should we embrace and publish the following good advice?

"TRAIL MAINTENANCE ADVICE"

By Laura-Rose Russell, Tyler bridge rd, laurarose812@yahoo.com
Thu, 25 June 2009

Cheap and Easy Trail Maintenance Advice from Laura-Rose Russell of Tyler Bridge Rd....

Have you ever been out for a walk in the town forest, or on any of the beautiful trails in our area, and wondered what to do about that massive mud puddle in the middle of the trail? Do you walk through the middle of it, ruining your shoes and making big holes, or do you walk around the edge on solid ground? You can see that the trail is beginning to fall apart, but you are not sure whether you are helping or making it worse.

The best answer? WALK SINGLE FILE DOWN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRAIL, EVEN IF IT IS WET AND MUDDY. If you are wearing your barn boots or top-of-the-line Gore-Tex hikers, why worry about a little mud?

Why does it matter? A narrow trail holds together better than a wide one--there are more plant roots nearby, holding the soil together and draining the water after it rains. If one person walks around the puddle, it might not matter, but you may have noticed that as the season goes on, the mud puddle gets wider and wider? This is called "threading," and it happens because it only takes five or six people stepping in the same place to compact the soil, kill plant roots, and drive back the vegetation that is maintaining the trail. As the plants die, the trail gets muddier, and more people walk around the edge, killing more plants, and so on.

But what if you are wearing your expensive designer loafers? Well, I think the answer there is obvious. It's more likely to be your brand-new trail runners, and they are still bright and colorful, and besides, it's so wet you just know your socks will get soaked and then you are stuck with wet feet for the rest of your hike. My suggestion would be to go ten or twenty feet back on the trail and take a WIDE detour through the woods; try to pick the least obvious route; step where no one else has stepped before and no one else is likely to step again. Next time you head for the trails, wear boots or old shoes that you don't mind getting dirty. I couldn't stay off the trails during mud season this year, so I wore old sneakers and put bread bags over my socks to keep my feet dry.

For more info on easy ways to take care of your favorite wild place, check out http://www.lnt.org.”

Possible acquisition of a part of the Burritt Property to complete a town owned corridor connecting the Hinesburg Community with the LHTF.

Next meeting date: August 19, 2009

(Third Wednesday of the month)

Submitted by Colin McNaull, July 21, 2009