Hinesburg Trails Committee
Meeting Minutes
December 15, 2010
Present: Stewart Pierson, Greg LeRoy, Jane Sheldon, Colin McNaul, Jason Reed, Cathy Ryan, Lenore Budd
1) Minutes of the 11/17/10 meeting were approved as submitted.
2) The VT Recreation Trails Fund grant deadline is 1/15/11. Jason will take the lead on submitting a mini-grant application for sign materials and Lenore will assist. The interim town administrator, Hank Lambert will need to submit the grant on behalf of the Committee and the Town.
3) We have made some progress on creating a trail connection between the south and north portions of the LaPlatte Headwaters Town Forest.
a. Julie Foley of the VT Dept. of Environmental Conservation has approved a trail across the stream and wetland in the proposed (flagged & GPSed) location as long as this doesn’t involve trail improvements (bridge, boardwalk, puncheon) and as long as ATVs are excluded. In the future, if such trail improvements are desired, we need to again seek approval from DEC.
b. The Tufos do not want a public trail on their land at this time because their property is for sale. The Mead Farm Road Association (as represented by Mark Styduhar and Paul Lamberson) will allow the public to use the trails on their common land (the property is not posted) but do not want the trails to appear on any publicly disseminated maps nor do they want the trails marked. Lenore will draft a letter (for Committee editing) to Mark and Paul 1) seeking permission to remove a short section of barbed wire fence between the MFRA common land and the strip of LHTF land to the west of the Tremblay House (this will allow a trail connection between the north and south half of the LHTF); and 2) suggesting new signage for the trail where it exits LHTF/enters MFRA land both from the north and from the south (something like “You are now leaving the Town Forest and entering private land. Please stay on the trail and be a considerate guest.”)
4) Joyce Gallagher denied permission for the portion of the High Rocks Trail on her land. As soon as weather permits, Stewart and Greg will divert the short stretch of trail on her land onto the Frisch-Mead land, where permission has been granted.
5) Mead sidewalk on Rte. 116 - Lantmans is waiting to hear if it has won a liquor license from the State Liquor Board. If they do not receive a license they will not expand, which means they won’t be seeking density points and contributing to the cost of the sidewalk. The Town’s portion of sidewalk costs is included in the budget to be voted on at the March 2011 Town Meeting. On a related note, Cathy will request snowplowing (from Rocky or others) of the ROW between the Lyman Park parking area and Lantmans to facilitate winter pedestrian traffic.
6) Due to a ski accident, Michelle has not been able to create a final draft of a HART brochure but will do so by the Committee’s February meeting. Stewart will find out if it’s OK to include the Lake Iroquois Trails (actually in Williston) in the brochure.
7) Stewart has not heard back from the Conservation Commission regarding our offer to mark trails in Geprags Park. Apparently they plan to rely on trail blazes painted on trees in Geprags Park so our initial signage effort (see #2 above) will focus on the Russell Trails.
8) After participating in a DRB site visit to the proposed Bedard development, Jason and Lenore determined that the Bedard property does not provide a desirable trail connection between the Old Town Forest and the Sleepy Hollow trails. They have had lengthy conversations with Brooke Scatchard (The Fellowship of the Wheel) and Eli Enman (Sleepy Hollow) and both have agreed to allow a summer only, non-motorized, public recreation trail to piggy-back on specific trails to make the connection from Texas Hill Rd. to Magee Hill Rd. Lenore will ask Alex to prepare a map to accompany a letter to the three other landowners involved in this trail connection and get this in the mail ASAP.
9) Rocky and Alex have submitted a design for the Gilman Rd. LHTF parking area to the Hinesburg Land Trust and others with jurisdiction. Sign installation will wait until after the parking area is improved, most likely next spring.
10) The Town Forest Committee is dealing with a lot of differing opinions regarding management of the Old Town Forest. They will be hosting a public input meeting on 1/12/11.
11) It was agreed that the upcoming Town Meeting would be a good opportunity to increase awareness of the HART network and the work of the Committee. Cathy and Stewart will organize this.
12) Stewart organized a site visit of the stream erosion/tire dump site in the LHTF with Justin Kenney of the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Justin proposed some solutions for mitigating the erosion, but implementation will require grant money. Justin is willing to help us with grant applications.
13) Stewart encouraged us to start thinking about Colin’s replacement when Colin (sadly) leaves Hinesburg in 2011. We should seek willing candidates who represent recreation modes (e.g. equestrian) and sections of town (e.g. the northwest) that are currently under-represented on the Committee, and ideally a native-born Hinesburger.
Next Meeting: January 19, 2011