ewelin
Feb 23, 2006, 03:11 PM
Looks like some good news in the right dirrection for what could be a great trail for many people. Bangor Daily News[/url:5efa0]]Trail plan gains speed
Thursday, February 23, 2006 - Bangor Daily News
CHERRYFIELD - The state's plan to take up the Calais Branch Corridor rail tracks and put in place a recreational trail for all seasons between Hancock and Pembroke gained speed Wednesday with the unveiling of the draft document for the trail's management.
With a recommended working name of the "Down East Sunrise Trail," the trail would go 87 miles through towns in both Hancock and Washington counties.
"We hope to have a trail in place, or portions of it, by the winter of 2007," said the Department of Transportation's Dan Stewart.
Stewart was presiding over a meeting of the Calais Branch Corridor Management Plan Committee at the Cherryfield town office.
The document is the work of the Department of Transportation, which initiated the project after Gov. John Baldacci's endorsement last summe.r.
The Department of Conservation has agreed to assume the responsibility of maintenance and management of the trail.
The DOC's Bureau of Parks and Lands will handle the trail, with an initial goal of hiring a full-time trail manager. That will likely occur by summer. The bureau would then expend about $50,000 a year for trail maintenance, including grooming for snowmobiles in winter.
The Calais Branch corridor is actually 127 miles long and historically connected Brewer to Calais by rail. But it has been completely unused by rail operators for a generation, and was acquired by the Department of Transportation for the purpose of rail preservation in 1987.
The trail plan emerged over the last year as a mix of compromises among competing interests. Foremost among them - for those who hate to lose a railbed in their backyard - is the state's pledge that the corridor will be protected for future rail use, if economic conditions develop that enable the return of the rail. New modern tracks would be laid for that.
The plan also leaves in place the rail system from Brewer to Green Lake. The Green Lake to Ellsworth portion also remains intact for a proposed, private business plan for excursion rail. From Ellsworth to Washington Junction in Hancock, the rail and trail will co-exist.
On the far end of the corridor in Washington County, between Ayers Junction in Pembroke and Calais, the rail system also stays in place.
But the 87-mile stretch that generally parallels U.S. Route 1 - albeit behind fields and forests - will be prepared for what planners call "multiuse." Walkers, bicyclists, horseback riders will share the trail with those on all-terrain vehicles and, in winter, cross country skiers and snowmobilers.
Town officials along the route have all been visited in recent weeks for updates on the plan's progress.
The trail is expected to become a tourism "centerpiece for the region and its economic development," according to the plan.
The public is welcome to learn plan details and ask questions at two public meetings on March 8 in Ellsworth and March 9 in Machias.
The Ellsworth meeting is set for 7 p.m. at the Ellsworth City Hall. The Machias meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the University of Maine at Machias' Science 102 room.
Comments will be recorded to provide input when the Department of Conservation's designers go to work later in the year.
Until then, those interested in the trail's map and management plan can access it on the Web site http://www.sunrisetrail.org.
Sally Jacobs, a walker and cyclist, has been a leader of the Sunrise Trail Coalition that has lobbied for such a trail since 1991. She commended the plan.
"It's very readable and there was a ton of last-minute input," she said to Dan Stewart, who has overseen most of the document's development. "You have listened to most of that."
The plan has been shaped by a group called the Calais Branch Corridor Management Plan Committee. More than three dozen representatives of towns, public agencies and user groups, such as hikers and snowmobilers, have met since August to talk about priorities and options.
Once the governor signs off on the trail conversion plan, the Department of Conservation will set up a permanent advisory committee. That would include citizen advocates as well as appointed representatives from all of the towns along the corridor.
Thursday, February 23, 2006 - Bangor Daily News
CHERRYFIELD - The state's plan to take up the Calais Branch Corridor rail tracks and put in place a recreational trail for all seasons between Hancock and Pembroke gained speed Wednesday with the unveiling of the draft document for the trail's management.
With a recommended working name of the "Down East Sunrise Trail," the trail would go 87 miles through towns in both Hancock and Washington counties.
"We hope to have a trail in place, or portions of it, by the winter of 2007," said the Department of Transportation's Dan Stewart.
Stewart was presiding over a meeting of the Calais Branch Corridor Management Plan Committee at the Cherryfield town office.
The document is the work of the Department of Transportation, which initiated the project after Gov. John Baldacci's endorsement last summe.r.
The Department of Conservation has agreed to assume the responsibility of maintenance and management of the trail.
The DOC's Bureau of Parks and Lands will handle the trail, with an initial goal of hiring a full-time trail manager. That will likely occur by summer. The bureau would then expend about $50,000 a year for trail maintenance, including grooming for snowmobiles in winter.
The Calais Branch corridor is actually 127 miles long and historically connected Brewer to Calais by rail. But it has been completely unused by rail operators for a generation, and was acquired by the Department of Transportation for the purpose of rail preservation in 1987.
The trail plan emerged over the last year as a mix of compromises among competing interests. Foremost among them - for those who hate to lose a railbed in their backyard - is the state's pledge that the corridor will be protected for future rail use, if economic conditions develop that enable the return of the rail. New modern tracks would be laid for that.
The plan also leaves in place the rail system from Brewer to Green Lake. The Green Lake to Ellsworth portion also remains intact for a proposed, private business plan for excursion rail. From Ellsworth to Washington Junction in Hancock, the rail and trail will co-exist.
On the far end of the corridor in Washington County, between Ayers Junction in Pembroke and Calais, the rail system also stays in place.
But the 87-mile stretch that generally parallels U.S. Route 1 - albeit behind fields and forests - will be prepared for what planners call "multiuse." Walkers, bicyclists, horseback riders will share the trail with those on all-terrain vehicles and, in winter, cross country skiers and snowmobilers.
Town officials along the route have all been visited in recent weeks for updates on the plan's progress.
The trail is expected to become a tourism "centerpiece for the region and its economic development," according to the plan.
The public is welcome to learn plan details and ask questions at two public meetings on March 8 in Ellsworth and March 9 in Machias.
The Ellsworth meeting is set for 7 p.m. at the Ellsworth City Hall. The Machias meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the University of Maine at Machias' Science 102 room.
Comments will be recorded to provide input when the Department of Conservation's designers go to work later in the year.
Until then, those interested in the trail's map and management plan can access it on the Web site http://www.sunrisetrail.org.
Sally Jacobs, a walker and cyclist, has been a leader of the Sunrise Trail Coalition that has lobbied for such a trail since 1991. She commended the plan.
"It's very readable and there was a ton of last-minute input," she said to Dan Stewart, who has overseen most of the document's development. "You have listened to most of that."
The plan has been shaped by a group called the Calais Branch Corridor Management Plan Committee. More than three dozen representatives of towns, public agencies and user groups, such as hikers and snowmobilers, have met since August to talk about priorities and options.
Once the governor signs off on the trail conversion plan, the Department of Conservation will set up a permanent advisory committee. That would include citizen advocates as well as appointed representatives from all of the towns along the corridor.