Open Space Committee

Present: Rick Gardner, Deb CaryCary LeBlanc, Jaye Fitzgerald, Brian Keevan, Matt Granger, Phil O’Brien, Susan Downing, Pat McGowan, Tom Trigg, Dominik Kulakowski

Absent: Kelton Burbank, Karen Rossow, Matt Moncrief

Meeting began at 7:05 pm on Goto Meeting.

Rick Introduced the project with a Powerpoint presentation covering Scope and Objectives, brief history of OSC trail work, and proposed work plan.

The proposed plan includes four sub-committees:

Survey team: To somehow collect information by area of town on trail/walking improvements

Signage: Set a common Princeton format for kiosks, trail signs, blazing.

Documentation and Publicity: Design methods for documenting trails/walking routes, mapping, and promoting the trails and trail work. Also, design Trail Summit meeting to update the town on committee work.

Landowner: Develop a set of guidelines for working with Landowners. This will include info on conservation options, types of agreements for trail use, addressing concerns such as privacy, parking, and traffic.

Participants introduced themselves and indicated their interests. See table below.

Name                                     Group                  eMail                        Committee Interest

Rick Gardner                   OSC          rick.s.gardner@gmail.com                    All, but #1 is survey

Deb Cary                         OSC           dcary@massaudubon.org                   All but #1 is signage

Kelton Burbank                OSC           kmbortho1@aol.com                            Not present

Cary LeBlanc                   OSC           CJLEB18@gmail.com                           Doc/Publicity, and Survey

Jaye Fitzgerald                Norco          jayefitz@yahoo.com                              Landowner

Brian Keevan                  ConCom       bjkeevan@gmail.com                            Landowner, liaison with concom

Matt Granger                    RAC            mgrangersnowremoval@gmail.com      Liaison with Road Advisory Com

Matt  Moncrief            Selectboard       matthew.moncreaff@gmail.com            Not Present

Phil Obrien               Trail Stewards     PhilipOBrien25@gmail.com                  Signage, Doc/Publicity

Susan Downing             OSC             downingsdd@gmail.com                       Survey, Signage

Pat McGowan         Trail Stewards       pjrmcgowan@gmail.com                    Doc/Publicity

Tom Trigg                     At Large              tfhtrigg@gmail.com                        All, but #1 is Signage

Dominik Kulakowski     At Large          dominik.kulakowski@gmail.com       Survey

A few suggestions were made:

Spend some time looking at how other towns are doing these things. There are several local area towns with trail visions or strategies. Rick has some contacts from MRTC (Mass Regional Trail Coalition) if groups want to talk to others.

Consider bringing in the NEMBA (New England Mountain Bike Assoc) folks for trail work or for help with trail design.

Rick will send out a proposed set of team assignments. Will select an Open Space member to lead each of the teams, and ask the teams to begin working on a plan to tackle their areas.

We agreed to have a follow up meeting on Tuesday October 27th at 7AM. At that time, sub-committees will report back on progress, we will plan to have an initial version of the survey ready for review, and Rick will present his initial documentation of existing trails. We will also take a closer look at some of the maps.

Respectfully submitted, Rick Gardner