Open Space Committee
Open Space Committee meeting minutes for January 18, 2024
Meeting began at 7:05 p.m.
Present: Rick Gardner, Susan Downing, Annie Charrette, Karen Rossow
Excused: Laura Reynolds, Deb Cary
Minutes of the last meeting unanimously approved.
Karen will relay to the town clerk that we will routinely meet on the second Tuesday each month in the large conference room at 7:00 p.m.
Annual report for 2023 will be written and submitted by Rick.
Reminder that there is a committee chairs breakfast meeting on February 29th at 8:00 a.m. in the large room of the annex. Rick asked if anyone else would like to represent OSC, but the decision was to let the chair do it.
Winter Carnival is coming up and Deb, Susan and Annie will represent the OSC.
Emily Merlino of the North County Land Trust is holding a landowner information session with the Sterling OSC in Sterling on March 30, 2024 at 2:00 (not sure of the location) and our OSC will participate. We will invite landowners who have Chapter 61 status and thirty or so other landowners to this meeting.
Documentation of trails into concise booklet: this project was begun months ago by Laura and Rick added to it recently. It still needs work. The concept is to make something more printer-friendly than what is involved for hikers who want paper copies of all of our hike routes. As it stands now, we do not intend to print the booklet ourselves, although there is some interest in creating a booklet that would incorporate more information such as more sensitive, intimate connection to the natural world by including plant and animal species or vistas, history, etc. to it. We will discuss more next meeting.
Our website: Patrick McGowan and Susan completed a large project intended to streamline and simplify our website as it had massive quantities of information, some repetitive and some extraneous. Since this effort was completed additional links have been inadvertently added and Rick will clean it up.
Parcel connections being looked at by Mass Division of Fish and Wildlife: James McCarthy of this state organization has funds to purchase some parcels in two areas (Mirick land area and to the west, Lyons, King, Caswell and Malkasian) that present valuable wildlife corridors. Rick and Deb have been and will continue to pursue the landowners to encourage them to plan for preservation of their properties on behalf of DF&W. It should be noted that the state is not interested in land protected by conservation restrictions as they are too management-intensive.
Parcel analysis: Rick will continue to have conversations with pertinent organizations and people so when a valuable parcel becomes available we can work on possibly saving it from development.
Goodnow Park: Susan will write an article for Redemption Rock Newspaper and Annie will send them an article about hiking there with kids.
Thomas Prince School trails: Annie, Deb and Sherry Patch are working on a Planning Grant for accessible trails at the school. This would entail upgrading existing trails, not adding any new ones. The grant encourages connecting the trails to other trails, but we have valid safety reasons for not doing so. The trails should only lead back to the school and they are not to be used by the public during school.
CMRPC Trail Plan conversation: They want to work with ten towns in Worcester County including Princeton to create an updated/new trail plan. We haven’t collectively come to a final decision, but generally we feel that Rick already has an outstanding skill set for this and we really don’t need assistance from them. We are also concerned it would cost $1,000 for the town which we only want to spend if necessary. We could give CMRPC our own new plan for them to incorporate into their packet if they are interested in doing so. Rick and Deb will discuss with Sherry.
Trail Plan Update: Ideas for new trails include adding Begley/Doyle trail, Goodnow Park to Allen Hill connection, Mirick Road to Echo Lake, Boylston Street to Cobb Brook trails via Cusinello property), a trail through Norco land (Rick will engage them again), Rocky Pond up to the mid-state trail between Crow Hill and Redemption Rock, Calamint Hill trails to Savage Hill trails, Route 31 to Beaman Road, and replacing the bridge that washed away on the edge of the Onion Patch behind Quik Stop. Rick likes formal plans so is eager to see this done.
Princeton Hikes! remain wildly popular.
Karen requested to speak on trail impacts on the surrounding flora and fauna and habitats with a discussion to follow at the next meeting on Tuesday, February 13th, 2023 in the large room of the town hall annex.
Meeting adjourned at 8:53 p.m.
To Do: Susan and Annie will write articles for RRN; Rick and Deb will continue to reach out to landowners, Deb and Annie will continue to work on Thomas Prince Trails, Deb, Annie and Susan will represent us at the next winter carnival at Krashes Fields. Rick will write the annual report.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen Rossow