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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-09-16Dryden Rail Trail Friends and Task Force Minutes of the Meeting Monday, September 16, 2019 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Freeville Village Hall Attendance: Bob Beck, Diane and Chris Tessaglia-Hymes, Kathy Wolf, Stephanie Goddard, Kevin Dean, Todd Bittner, Bruno Schickel, David Bravo Cullen, Deb Siegert, Alice Green, Susan Ashdown, Mary Millick, John Kiefer, Rose Borzik, Loren Sparling, Steve Winans, Nancy Munkenbeck, Brent Hollister Call to order (7:02 p.m.) – Bob Beck Additions to agenda Approval of July minutes Triad Foundation grant received – Bob, Bruno This $15,000 grant will cover materials for the refurbishment of the trestles at the Game Farm section of the trail. Foundation officials said they would encourage us to apply again since they like to continue funding projects that they like. Bruno said their grants are usually $10,000 to 20,000. He wants to get Roy Park, Jr. out to walk the trail. Brief reports on: • Project Lead trail work and Family Reading Partnership Story Walk installation— Alice, Milo, Bob In July, a terrific team of 10 teens helped clear a trail section near Rte. 366 in Etna, under the leadership of Cooperative Extension’s Jeff Panik with Bob, Milo and Alice. They also installed a new Story Walk—featuring pages from the preschoolers’ book Steam Train, Dream Train - on the Schug trail section beginning near Dryden Agway. Project Lead is a volunteer summer pre-employment program for 11-15 year olds. • Booths at Dryden Lake Festival and Freeville Harvest Festival– Alice, Susan, Mary Millick, Stephanie Goddard, Kathy Wolf, John K., Bob The booths were an opportunity to greet the public and answer questions about the trail. A raffle at the Dryden Lake Festival, and sales of trail merchandise brought in $230. The Freeville Festival brought in $20 in sales; raffles were not permitted there. Alice thanked all the volunteers who staffed the booth, and especially Susan who made or procured all the raffle items. She added that all the proceeds were applied against costs of the water bottles, caps, patches etc. There is plenty of inventory and any new sales will go to the Trail. Trail surface work – Bruno Work on the trail surface continues. Bruno said he started working on the washout near the FH Fox Bridge. He brought in material from grading other parts of the trail. Next, volunteers have seeded it down. They drove in steel stakes and black plastic snow fence along the steep sides. Bob, Bruno, Todd, Alice and John L. did a walk through afterwards and discussed how to preserve trees and habitat along the trail in that area and west of the Fox Bridge. Todd noted this is a beautiful section of the trail for views along the ravines. Bruno reported that about three weeks ago, Rick Young called to ask permission to send his large machine over to work at Game Farm to keep the brush down. However, they continued over Mt. Pleasant and cleared some trees and shrubbery that had been intended for saving. But he said that the good news is: the clearing on the trail section from the Stevenson Rd to Mt. Pleasant was helpful. Bruno then brought in a dozer and bobcat and graded and crowned the section. He also did trimming and added a culvert pipe in the Gary Sloan easement section, and he said the whole section is pretty good now. This was about $6000 worth of work in machine time and materials. He said he’s gotten great feedback from people walking down through there. Update on planned Game Farm trestle and Fox Bridge work – Bruno • Todd asked if signs have been placed on both sides of the Fox Bridge. Bob reported that the Highway Superintendent wants to consult with the Town Attorney before putting up those signs. Todd said he understands that the NYS general obligations law will cover the Town, so having a sign that shows due diligence will raise the bar in a lawsuit. Bob was concerned that if the signs are placed, there won’t be any enforcement capacity. Todd said now that the Town officially owns the bridge; a sign is better than no sign. A barrier would be even better to keep people off the bridge before it is ready for official opening. Alice said she would check in with the Town attorney. • On the railing work for the Fox Bridge, Bruno said he and his crew could do the carpentry work, so that DPW needs to do only the welding. Traffic on Route 366 beneath has to be stopped one lane at a time while the railings construction is under way. • Todd asked, how confident are we that the next time we need to coordinate with Town DPW for trail clearing, the communication will be more clear? Bob said Bruno has volunteered be the point person from the Task Force to DPW staff, responsible for explaining to the crew who reports for the job. Todd said it might be appropriate for the Town Board to request that DPW crews not employ their articulated arm bush mower without a member of the Task Force present. • Bruno and Bob have talked with Evan Wills at the Game Farm to see if the DEC has looked at the plan for trestle renovations that Bruno made and had stamped by an engineer. He said that the opportunity for rebuilding the trestles this year is waning. It would be good to clear the section between the two trestles. The Town equipment can come in by creating a little access road, that wouldn’t require going over either trestle. Update on Game Farm Road at-grade crossing – Bob, Alice, Todd, John L. The Town received a draft agreement from County Highway Chief Jeff Smith, stipulating their requirements for a study and an engineering plan for the crossing. It appears to require a study of all crossing alternatives. Bruno asked why. Bob said that at the June meeting of stakeholders at the crossing, it seemed that they agreed that the at-grade crossing is the appropriate solution. John Lampman has volunteered his time to help prepare the plan. Todd said the Town’s request for a speed reduction will require a traffic study, which may meet some of the plan requirements Alice said that the Town has asked for the speed limit reduction, and is planning to approach the Town of Ithaca and Cornell to help with any costs for the study, as well as with installation and maintenance costs for the crossing. Update on trail & highway signs – Diane, Bob Diane has designed welcome and street crossing road name signs that went to the printer today. The welcome sign is 12”w x 16”h and the street name signs are 12”w x 4”h. When approaching an intersection, trail users will see a stop sign with the street name sign above it. As they enter from the intersection, they will see the welcome sign containing our logo and rules of the trail. One post will be mounted with signs on either side. Signs have been ordered for all 16 intersections along the trail: 32 each of welcome signs, street name signs and stop signs. Bob noted the highly-reflective 12” x 12” stop signs received are plastic rather than metal, which reduced the cost from $39 apiece to $6.25 each. TAP grant scope update – Todd, Bruno, John K., John L., Bob It’s been about 6 weeks since there has been a client meeting. A question has arisen about how much of the trail work should be included in the scope of the work for the grant. With further information about the stipulations of the TAP grant, it may not be in the Town’s best interest to include some sections in the scope of the work. Federal standards could increase the costs of the stone dust surfacing, and create significant delays in keeping up the momentum of the trail. Todd added that part of our assumption was that volunteers and DPW could complete parts of the work. After more experience working with the NYS Parks grant, it has become clear that it is administratively challenging to prepare and submit claims for all these contributions. He said these factors have prompted the TAP grant subcommittee to take a step back and try to figure out alternatives and cost benefits. John said as time goes by it gets simpler because Bruno is doing a lot of the work that can done under the Parks grant, so there’s less that could serve as a match for the TAP grant. Todd said we have to have the bridge go to and from somewhere, that is, the trail has to be 100 percent stone dust surface and ADA compatible up to an intersection on either side of the bridge. The stone dust work is not included in the parks grant. There’s a 20 percent match required by the TAP grant. If work funded by NYS Parks can’t be part of that match, the local share may be more than originally expected. An option is to remove Game Farm Rd to Monkey Run Rd from the scope of the grant. One of the suggestions to help with grant questions was to connect with Tim Logue, City Engineer, who has more experience in dealing with TAP grants. The meeting with Logue was set for 2:30 pm September 19. Another suggestion was to go ahead and solicit expressions of interest from prospective engineering companies (a DOT-required list of 15) that might submit proposals to design the project, to gain their input on scope options. Mutt Mitt dispensers: donation & installation – Stephanie, Bob Bob thanked Stephanie for donating funds towards three “dog poop bag” dispensers that have now been installed in the Dryden to Freeville Trail section. She also offered to keep the dispensers filled with mitts. The Village of Freeville has three keys to the dispensers. Stephanie and Kevin said the situation is a lot better than it was before. Bob said there’s still some education needed, so dog owners know how to use the bags and remove them, rather than throwing them along the trail. New price quote for 10 trail benches – Bob Scott Roudebush, the owner of the Roudebush Company, which produced ten benches now installed on the Dryden to Freeville Trail section, has contacted Task Force about another order for more benches. Bob said they gave us a good price for quality benches. About $360 per bench. Bruno said that benches could go in some sections this fall; Monkey Run to Route 13 is a possibility. If we had them we could install them, he added. It takes about 4 weeks to get them in. Roscoe Brothers Woodworking, which donated the routing of “Dryden Rail Trail” on a board for each bench, has closed, but there are still nine extra routed name boards available to use on the new benches. The group agreed to order 10 more benches. Renew discussion of Friends of DRT fundraising options – Bruno, Mary M., Susan, Diane, Stephanie Mary described her background in development and shared some suggestions for Rail Trail fund-raising including: Raffles, a Doug’s Fish Fry fund raiser and more. Bruno suggested evening walks with a suggested contribution. Steph noted that the Freeville Community Council is doing a morning walk and talk Oct. 6. Nancy suggested a nature-oriented game that identifies plants along the trail. Another fun run was also suggested. Todd reminded the group that Friends of the Trail can solicit donations but Town employees and appointees cannot. Diane suggested that the Friends could meet separately to plan. She asked whether the DRT should form a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, to enable sale of trail items on line, etc. Todd suggested checking with a tax advisor about what are the thresholds for fund raising amounts that require 501(c)(3) status. First Kiosk Donor Bruno announced that his wife, Amy Dickinson, has offered to memorialize the Freeville kiosk. Comments from the Public Kevin reported that there were William George Agency cars chasing two students who ran away, at high speeds up to 45 mph along the trail at 7:40 pm recently. He called NYS police and two state troopers arrived on the scene. He asked the troopers to let Bob Beck know about the incident. Bob said the Tompkins County Sheriff’s office could also be contacted. Motorized vehicles (except emergency vehicles, are prohibited on the Rail Trail, and there are new caution signs at the trail crossing. Bruno suggested speed bumps could be added to slow down illegal speeders. Also, the Town of Dryden could notify the William George Agency that it’s not acceptable for their cars to travel at high speed on the off-road Rail Trail. Kevin asked again about the Town installing a privacy fence on his private property along DPW Drive. Task Force and Town Board members reiterated their previous response that the property is not part of the trail right of way, the Town has already contributed to privacy by plantings along the ROW, and any further fencing is the responsibility of the property owner. Next Meeting Scheduled for 7 pm Monday October 21 at Houtz Hall in Etna Adjournment at 9:25 pm Submitted by Alice Walsh Green