Hinesburg Trails Committee Minutes

Updated: 12/20/09, 12/21/09, 12/22/09

Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Place: Hinesburg Town Hall

Time: 7:00 PM

Came to order: 7:05 PM

Adjourned: 8:38 PM

Present: Cathy Ryan, Lenore Budd, Colin McNaull, Stewart Pierson, Greg LeRoy, Launa Lagasse

Absent: Bobby Kennett, Jason Reed, Martha Keenan

Public: Dennis Casey, Michelle Fisher

Routine (Repeating Items)

I. No November Meeting.

II. Finance

Next Article for the Hinesburg Record – Due at the Record on or before December 30, 2009. Cathy Ryan volunteered for this assignment.

Blurb for Annual Town Meeting Report – Stewart Pierson volunteered for this assignment.

Colin will resend easement list associated with trails.

UVM Presentation December 15th - Colin attended the UVM RM138 presentations on their Hinesburg Projects on behalf of the committee. Students reported on their observations and offered suggestions concerning the Old Town Forest and Geprags Park, a brochure for landowners, a questionnaire for trail users, residents, and landowners, a new blaze design that could be done in white reflective paint, PowerPoint presentations that could be used for future town meetings, interpretative trail kiosks, and many other ideas including an excellent synthesis of the three groups at the November 18th charrette/town discussion.

Colin thanked all for the work they did on our behalf and is following up with the students and David Raphael to get copies of the PowerPoint presentations and the written notes generated by each of the three groups at the November 18th charrette/town discussion which will be used by the committee in the future.

Colin had forgotten to bring the maps and the mylars to the meeting but they and the rest of the material should be available at the January 18, 2010 meeting.

Dennis Casey asked to see the maps and mylars and Colin made arrangements to go over them with Dennis on Friday, December 18, 2009 at the Hinesburg Town Hall.

“November 18th Charrette Where Now? - There was a lot of discussion on this and it was agreed that we would start at the January 18, 2010 meeting with all the material in hand.

Prioritizing projects for 2010 – Could each member bring in 10 that we could whittle down to 5? -

Colin’s prioritized top 10 which are in addition to the regular duties of the Trails Committee.

1. Charrette Consolidation

2. Communicate the results of the UVM RM138 charrette/town discussion to the Select Board in the next couple of months. The committee decided that we would need much more time to digest and use the gathered material and also felt that the Select Board had no immediate interest in seeing preliminary information. So this has been dropped.

3. Mark and map the Eagle Trail to make it user friendly to the public in all four seasons.

4. National Trails Day, the first Saturday in June. What should we do this year?

5. Town Meeting Report. This is being done by Stewart.

6. Standard Signage. Develop and use standard signage on all town trails.

7. Develop guidelines for new town trails construction.

8. Russell Trails/Thistle Hill signage in particular.

9. Locate and flag the 100 foot wide corridor that connects the north and south portions of the LaPlatte Headwaters Town Forest. This was relegated to individual assignments, not an all hands trails committee project. Colin and Lenore and possibly Stewart will work on this.

10. Sidewalks. This will probably be relegated to a sub committee of Cathy and Bobby.

Input from Greg using feedback from November 18th meeting.

1. Signage, materials, posts, printing on existing public trails, trail heads, markers,

easements.

2. Website upgrades: Maps, location of where the actual trailheads are, trail descriptions in terms of what you will see, distance, ease, etc.

3. Get control of the multiuse Old Town Forest.

4. Separate efforts relative to town (village trails, road use, and sidewalks versus rural trails.

5. Language to use for Planning, DRB, and Select Board.

6. Use and refinement of the UVM survey.

Other items mentioned:

To get a handle on what is involved in and the implications of putting a trail on the official town map. Lenore will be working on this.

Vetting the UVM handout on Land Owner Liability.

More on the website and how it can be used to convey information to the public.

Renaming and marking the Evanson Trail

Trail interpretation, kiosks, and trying to find out who is using the trails and how often they are used.

Subcommittees to work on up to date mapping and what needs to be done by subcommittees on the following corridors:

Isham/Catchapaw Road

Boutin Road

Buck Hill

Hayden Hill

Place Road

Burritt Road Area

Are there others?

Stewart’s input, focused on completion of items already being worked on or anticipated.

1) Blazing and signing and parking provisions for

a) The Uplands Town Forest

b) The LaPlatte Head Waters Town Forest

c) The Russell trail system

d) Preparing accurate up to date trail maps for the website

e) Following existing survey marks, create a trail connecting the southern and northern ends of the LaPlatte Headwaters Forrest

f) Talk to landowners about "the Cliff Trail" leading from West Buck hill to the "cliff"

2) Create information easily accessible to potential trail users which would include "degree of difficulty" and special natural features

3) Assist existing efforts to "care for" the old Town Forrest which would include identifying and blazing the EAGLE TRAIL

Colin was given the task of reducing all of the above to five committee goals for the committee in 2010. Some of these goals may have subsets that need to be completed as part of the process in completing the main goal of the heading.

Next meeting date: January 18, 2010

(Third Wednesday of the month)

Submitted by Stewart Pierson 12/20//09

Colin McNaull 12/22/09