Open Space Committee

Open Space Committee minutes for February 9. 2021

Present: Rick Gardner, Cary LeBlanc, Susan Downing, Deb Cary, Karen Rossow.

Absent: Kelton Burbank

Guest: Addison and Tim Barwise, Matt Lindberg

Meeting began at 7:00 p.m.

We discussed the proposed trail between Sawyer Field and Gleason Road. Matt Lindberg mentioned that he has been talking to DCR about steps needed to construct a trail. Rick mentioned that Kelton and the Parks and Rec group are proposing to add this into the PARC grant that they are proposing for Sawyer Field. Matt has heard that this could take two years to accomplish. We agreed that the next step is for Matt to discuss this with Kelton to see how they can work together. OSC will add this trail idea to our list of connections.

Minutes were approved for the Jan 13 OSC meeting and also for the last two trail vision meetings (November 24 and Jan 26).

Annual Report: Karen sent the OSC Annual report to Marie Auger.

Vision and Action Plan:

Survey: This is considered complete and the report has been sent to vision team members. Cary had some suggestions for the report, which Rick needs to merge in before finalizing.

Signage: Committee work is near complete. We have a proposal for each trail area. PLT has expressed approval for the sign designs, and we will begin with the Bullock/McElroy signage. Brian Keevan also expressed general approval for signage at the Four Corners trail head (managed by the Conservation Commission). Deb is costing out the signage and developing a plan.  

Communication and Promotion: Cary feels that he will need two more meetings to complete this project. Will plan to complete by end of March.

Landowners: No progress but will call another meeting to review landowner priorities.

Vision Development: We reviewed formats begun by Rick and Cary. We concluded that the text developed by Rick is a good format for explaining the elements of the vision, and the spreadsheet which arranges action items by objective seems like a good format for the action items. The text is a useful format for Princeton residents and landowners. The spreadsheet will provide a good mechanism for tracking progress.

Next step is for all members to review the text carefully. Rick will work at a first cut of action items. Once OSC has reviewed these we will send them out to the larger committee. Will plan to do this by end of February.

Issues discussion: We reviewed five issues that Rick wanted to nail down:

Do we want to use the word backbone? Rick views the whole trail with spurs and the large number of trails in areas like MRSR and WM as the ‘network’ (i.e., it is a broader term).

We agreed to use the term Backbone for now, but to research/consider other terms. There is some discomfort with that term.

Multi Use: Do we need to pause the hiking route development process to find a good biking route? Kelton is working on this with Christian Henderson.

We agreed that we need to proceed with the route for hiking. We have some concerns that if we press landowners (like Mass Aubudon, Nimrod, private owners, DCR) too hard, that we may well get locked out for walking access. We like the idea of adding a biking and/or horse loop but we need to be careful about approaching landowners.

Publicity: Do we all agree that we should keep PROMOTION to Princeton residents only. But NOT try to eliminate use by outsiders?

We agreed that we want to make Princeton residents aware of the trails but that we do not want to PROMOITE the trails for non-Princeton use. Outside people will find and use the trails, and that is OK. But our goal is to keep the trails quiet. Maybe do not use the word ‘Promote’. What we really want to do is to make Princeton people aware of the trails.

Organization: Present informal structure vs. more formal ‘TAP Committee’ under OSC?

This needs more discussion, but I think that we agree that we need the trail planning and trail management responsibility to be more formally tied into the town to provide more confidence to landowners. Not a loose independent group. The question is: should the driving body be OSC? Or a committee under OSC? Rick will check with a few other area trail people and we will revisit this next meeting.

Trail Summit / Public Hearing: How do we want to review this vision with the town residents?

We agreed that it would be useful to report back to the town, but that this should not be so detailed that we are showing all planned landowner issues. Instead, we will show what trails ARE available, what our immediate (landowner approved) plans are, and what other elements of the vision are. This can happen via zoom, in the spring.

Route Development: Rick reviewed the maps showing the proposed path for the ‘backbone’ network. On it, he indicated priorities for work. This prioritization does include the idea of ‘quick wins’ and prioritizing easier sections first. We did not ‘approve’ this per se, but Rick will follow up later this month to OSC with a proposal for priorities. We may or may not want to review it with the larger team.

Susan and Deb also pointed out that there are other segments, not on the ‘backbone’ that should also be considered. The survey indicated a number of potential connections, and these may be of more value (and perhaps easier to do) than parts of the backbone. We will add a list of these and consider priorities.

Trail Around Princeton (TAP) progress:

Calamint Hill Conservation Area: The only remaining step is the wetland replication work, which involved a few hours of digging. Will schedule for the spring.

Goodnow park: Next steps are:

Tour of the trails for the Gals: Cary will spearhead. Spring.

Tour with Parks and Rec and Historical Commission: Rick to see if they are interested. Matt Lindberg from the historical commission is interested in finding a good use for this property.

Begin trail work and work on signage: To organize this in the spring.

Worcester West Trails: We have the needed approvals to start work. Will set up a trail day in the late spring to finish the trail work, and also work on blazing and signage.

Also Rick met the person (Reid Bagley) who bought land from Ken Johnstone, and will plan to meet with him one their house plans progress. It would still be useful to add that link in the trail.

Princeton Hikes: Status summarized in the slide below. We agree to continue with the present plan through February and discuss a resumption of the larger hikes after that, if COVID 19 conditions improve..

Meeting Adjourned: at 8:40

Next Meeting: Tuesday March 9 at 7PM

Respectfully submitted,

Rick