HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-06-14Dryden Rail Trail Task Force and Friends
Minutes of the June 14, 2018 Meeting
Freeville Village Hall
Attendance: David Fogel, Alice Green, Marie McRae, Judy Pierpont, Steve Winans, David
Bravo-Cullen, Bob Beck, Andrew Siefert, Nelson Hogg, David Keifer, Todd Bittner, Susan
Ashdown, Dan Lamb, Russ Nelson
Convened at 7:04 pm – Bob Beck
Additions to the Agenda:
Talk about maps
Trail clean up help by equestrian group
Two girl scouts want to build and donate benches
Minutes of May meeting approved
Trail clearing at Mt Pleasant Rd – Bruno
Bruno spent two weekends in a row at this section. On the first weekend he was assisted by
Milo Richmond and Dean Russo with chain saws. This section hadn’t been used for decades
because it was so overgrown and blocked by huge piles of dirt. Second weekend Buzz Dolph
brought an excavator and Bruno brought a bobcat and they cleared the rail bed, moved the
piles of dirt, spread it out along the path, and opened up the whole section. Bob said it’s a
dramatic change. Value of time and machines was about $5,000.
Dairy Day Report – Bob and Alice
The Rail Trail had a booth at Dairy Day that garnered more interest and resulted in 15 new
signups for the list serve. A new cut out cow with the new logo was a displayed in Times
Square as part of the Dairy Day celebration.
Village of Dryden –Bob
Bob met with Mike Murphy, new Mayor of the Village, to forge some new coordination on
the trail. He will meet with the Village Trustees this week. They followed up on the talk
about flashing light crossing signs at the last task force meeting. It’s necessary to work with
NYS DOT to secure crossing for Route 13 where the new section joins with the Schug Trail.
The trail also crosses Elm St. north of Route 13, which is where the old RR station was
located. The portion of the RR property is wider there, and is owned by the village. The
hope is to have some parking, a kiosk with history, and benches there. David BC mentioned
it would be good to make a connection from Greystone Drive onto the trail.
Easements Report
DEC agreement at the Game Farm.
Dan said we are not getting any signals that our Volunteer Stewardship Agreement will not
come through. The town agreed to offer 60 acres in the Town (the Parke/Dabes tract) to
open up to bow hunting. Todd said that Cornell lawyers are talking about what might be
involved in helping to manage the hunting there.
Marie asked for clarification of why Sportsmen’s Groups have pushed back on the trail
traversing the Game Farm. Todd and Dan said this partly comes from the fact that this is the
last existing Game Farm in NYS and the trail is perceived as a threat to its existence. In fact,
they said, the Rail Trail group intends for the trail to support the Game Farm operation.
Hillside Acres Connection
Diann Ziegler and Rick Kugler, and Chip Ray (owner of Hillside Acres) have requested a
connection from this mobile home community onto the trail. This requires crossing Cornell
property along the edge of a field. It happens that CU is in the process of swapping some
land use with the Game Farm along the compost road. CU would retain use of that strip
along the edge of the field for maintenance access. CU Real Estate is amenable to having that
access strip shared with trail users, after proper agreement between CU and Hillside Acres.
Gary Sloan
Lawyers are still discussing the easement through his property. It is necessary to have this
before we can sign the grant contract with NYS Parks. Dryden can’t get reimbursed for any
money spent till that contract is signed. Bob is trying to get the Sloan easement expedited.
Eventually the plan is to deed the trail section of this property to the Town. Bob has met
with both town lawyers to go over the easement attestation process.
Brown Dog, LLC (Vanguard Press), former Wilcox Press
Corporate owners in PA will have a board of directors meeting in July to consider the
easement. Todd said the connection from Route 13 will likely require more than the 33 feet
that we have an easement for now.
Hanson Aggregates and NYSEG easements
These are moving forward.
Herrmann Property next to Glenn Swan Property
Efforts to contact them again are underway.
Equestrian Group from Brooktondale (Saddle Up for Jesus)
Want to use the trail from Schug section to Freeville. They are offering to do a monthly
clean up. Chris said problem will be rutting up the trail by the horses’ hooves. Marie said
this depends on the surface and how many horses: signage cautioning about wet conditions
could help. The rule is that bikes yield to horses. Bob said he read that stone dust is good
for both horses and cyclists. Todd said at CU natural areas stone dust is working well,
especially mixed with some portland cement. Alice noted another equestrian mentioned
that there must be room for horse trailers.in parking/pull off areas. Dan had a challenging
experience with a novice horseback rider when he was biking between Freeville and
Dryden.
Girl Scouts who want to build two benches
Laurelei and Katy Hollister, Dryden 8th graders from Freeville Village, plan to build these
from wood as a Scout project and donate them to the trail. They’ve posted pictures on line.
Signage designating Roads at Crossings
Russ distributed a 3D-printed road sign proposed to name roads at crossings. Bob said we
want to have maps (with a standardized scale) at road crossings, each showing 2 ¼ to 2 ½
miles, enough to show the next intersection in each direction. Todd distributed copies of a
set of 2 ½-mile maps (Suggest the maps should be square). Questions include what should
be the background color, what info to include on each map, e.g. geographic info, bathrooms
and amenities nearby. By straw poll, most felt the satellite map was most useful. Todd will
work with Diane to tweak colors, fonts etc. These maps will appear at the 13 crossings
along the trail.
New Trail Logo Stickers
Diane had bumper sticker logos printed by Cornell print shop (high-quality vinyl at $1.50
each). The Friends of the Trail can use these for fund raising. Dan said the state has now
allowed towns to create a mechanism for receiving charitable funds, and he will look into
this possibility. Bob said some business donors of equipment, materials and time do want
to claim this for a tax deduction. Judy has volunteered to write thank you notes. Alice will
make sure that the Supervisor and his secretary are ready to send official confirmation of
donations when donors ask for them.
Benches
Design committee recommended benches from the Roudebush Company in Indiana, with
boards made of solid recycled plastic (from milk cartons) and heavy steel frames. There was
a question about whether to use plastic or lumber for the boards. A local company, Aardarc
Welding in Brooktondale, submitted quotes for a prototype frame and assembly with
treated lumber, at the request of Deputy Highway Superintendent Chris Clauson (see
attached summary of quotes for 10 and 25 benches or frames only from Roudebush and
Aardarc).
Susan said maintaining the benches could be a bonding activity. Leopold benches are
anchored with a cable or chain. The Schug trail benches have stood up well.
Chris T-H said the committee recommended Roudebush benches because they offer a
maintenance-free solution and could be assembled by volunteers. And the Indiana company
offered frame-only pairs for less than half the price of the local company.
Todd suggested getting two samples that could be offered for the memorial bench to
Stephanie Gardner. A common way of pricing donation cost for such a bench would be
doubling the cost including installation. E.g. If it cost $400 add installation cost and then
double it.
Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) Grant application
Todd reminded that the Trail got a Strategic Tourism Implementation grant from the
County to study options for crossing Route 13. Barton and Loguidice (B& L) were selected
as the engineers, and they expect to supply the study report in time for the final TAP grant
submission deadline in August. Todd suggested moving forward with the pre-application,
due next week, using placeholders for those numbers.
He reported new information about using state multi-modal transportation funding,
currently earmarked for part of the trail project by State Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton.
After some research by her staff, it’s become clear that this money cannot be used for the
20% local match required by the TAP grant. And NYS Assembly officials indicated that the
only aspect of the trail project that could be direct funded by the multi-modal funding is the
highway crossing.
A table with possible options for putting together funding for the crossing was circulated.
There are other possibilities for raising the local match. The county has prioritized this trail,
and urged the project to apply for another tourism grant for capital projects. Todd will
investigate the level of a possible grant, and whether it might even be renewable.
Todd and Bob are researching with Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) and OPRHP
whether a portion of the NYS Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation grant may be
applied as local match towards the Town share of the TAP grant
Todd said the task force can get good feedback from the NYSDOT by going through the pre-
application process, and it will be possible to do some “course corrections” if necessary with
new info from B&L, in time for the final application.
Alice said that Bruno Schickel was unable to attend the meeting, but asked to her to convey
his stand opposing submitting the TAP grant pre-application at this time. He believes: 1) it
is premature to apply for the Route 13 crossing when there are still easements to be
secured; 2) the Town should not pay for the match from taxes 3) if built before the trail is
fully complete, the bridge could discourage further fund raising and securing the final
easements. Task Force member John Kiefer was also absent, but earlier expressed similar
reservations.
Susan stated her support for applying for the TAP grant. Alice said her own opinion is that
the timing is right to apply for the grant because 1) the Route 13 crossing is the most
difficult challenge for trail funding and there’s no certainty that TAP money will be available
later 2) the first Rail Trail TAP application as not approved, but was highly rated, and DOT
officials encouraged submitting a new one; 3) County Planning Dept. and County
Transportation planners have supported the task force to pursue this grant and encouraged
an application for county tourism dollars as part of the match.
Dan added that the Town Board is actively working on instituting a recreational impact tax
on new development in the town, which could help replenish the recreation reserve fund,
should it be needed for part of the local match.
Vote to proceed with the TAP pre-application
Approved by all seven task force members present: Susan, Chris, Judy, David, Steve, Bob and
Todd. Bob and Todd will prepare the application for NYSDOT pre-review by the due date
next week.
Adjourned at 9:23 pm
Next meeting set for 7-9 pm Monday July 16 in Varna Community Center
Respectfully submitted by Alice Walsh Green
Trail Bench Quotes (6/18/2018)
The Roudebush Company Aardarc Welding
10 benches @ $325 each x 10= $3,250 10 benches @ $434 each x 10= $4,340
Shipping freight is $550 Local pick-up
Solid recycled plastic boards Treated lumber
Volunteers assemble them here Pre-assembled
Total $3,800 ($380 per bench) Total $4,340 ($434 per bench)
Frame pair only @ $125 each Frame pair only @ $363.40 each
25 benches @ $315 each x 25= $7,875 25 benches @ $403 each x 25= $10,075
Shipping freight is $625 Local pick-up
Solid recycled plastic boards Treated lumber
Volunteers assemble them here Pre-assembled
Total $8,500 ($340 per bench) Total $10,075 ($403 per bench)
Frame pair only @ $332.40 each