Trails Committee - Regular Meeting

who is here.

This has not arrived. I hope she'll be released online.

She is our new council member, which gives us two of us, at least. And we need her to vote on the...

Enter your meeting ID, followed by pound.

I'm sorry? What was that? Oh, okay. And...

Enter your participant ID followed by tell.

My microphone isn't working? I'm good? Okay. Maybe my hearing aids aren't working. So we don't have the two of us, but we do have Robert Dickinson and Kevin Gow. So that's Good. The purpose of our committee is to be advocates for East Coast Greenway and bike paths generally, or pathways generally. So we can accomplish that with the people here. We can't approve the... So I will also say that Ted, I don't know. I don't know you, I think.

Ted came and talked about the, Ted's been at our meetings before. He came and talked about the pathway.

Oh, oh, the one in your pathway. Oh, yes, I'm sorry, Ted. Now I know you. That's okay.

I've only been to one meeting, and that is.

Okay, if you get to my age, you've got to hear it five or six times. And Rob, unfortunately, Rob, unfortunately, he's done such a fantastic job over the last couple of years. He hasn't been with us a long time, but he's done miracles in keeping the bike path moving. And East Coast Greenway has thrived and grown under his administration. So it's been great. And I'm hoping that Darren will be able to continue pair of the ball, so that would be really good. He's the assistant talent engineer and may become the acting talent engineer if any of that's official yet, but in the meantime, he's going to be our man. So, Rob, how long is it before you're fading into...

This is my last week. And yeah, I've already got family coming into town for a month for a service we planned for my dad who passed in October. So that's kind of what spearheaded this, you know, was being able to spend time with family immediately.

I understand. We wish you the best. It's just It's certainly been wonderful for Bloomfield and especially this committee. And I hope Darren understands that the number one priority of engineering in Bloomfield is East Coast Greenway. Anybody can convince you there's anything more important.

If you looked at our project list, I think anyone would agree.

This committee actually exists to make sure that it's your number one priority because you're the one that's going to have to keep things moving. It's a very difficult thing to accomplish. Can you go ahead, Rob, and give us your report for the status of things?

Of course, of course. One of the things I wanted to start off with is what you and I discussed. And I'm just going to share my screen so you guys can see. Everyone see that?

Oh, wow.

So those are those are some, you know, standard signs we had made up, you know, for the Merritt Greenway. And then Joe had pointed out to me that council had approved naming a section over by the old St. Andrew's Church. Am I saying that right? After Paul Hughes. So he asked if I could make that sign as well. So these signs will be getting put up. The Merritt Greenway sign on Duncaster at the Duncaster crossing and the Paul Hughes sign. over, over at the parking lot. Well, thank you very much. Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome. And that's, we have similar signs around town, kind of honorary type signs. Um, so we, we just kept, kept them in the same fashion. They weren't expensive. They were simple, simple to make. Um, our, our, you know, our, our sign, um, consultant, you know, makes, makes street street name signs for us all the time. And that's kind of the same, same size. And forgive me for not updating my memo, but I'm just going to go through my last memo item by item and give you updates on where we're at for each of the projects. So Woodland Avenue. So I think about two weeks ago, I received notification from Krog that we have been officially awarded the $1.5 million for that sidewalk project. And then once, you know, now that the budget's approved, we had funding in the fiscal year 27 budget for the design of that project. So we can now put an RFP out to get the design of that sidewalk project going. And that's, you know, that's to extend the sidewalks from where they end now to, Oh, what, what, what, Darren, help me out. What, what, what street is it? Ashley, Ashley Court, somewhere around that area, north all the way to blue.

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah. It's, it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's a great project. It addresses the fatality, you know, that occurred there. You know, at West Newberry late last year, and we've gotten many complaints about filling that gap because a gap exists at the south end. So that's a good project to, you know, kick off. The Terry Plains Road Trail, Kevin is officially in charge of that project now. I spoke with Claire Kane, who's the director of Connecticut Forest and Park Association, who I worked with to get our project into their application. Although it hasn't officially, you know, DEEP hasn't officially made an award notice yet, you know, it'd be very, you know, rare that Connecticut Forest and Park doesn't get their request. So, you know, I expect, based on what Claire Kane told me, you know, the work on that trail could start as early as this fall. And that's mostly just with volunteers. just so you know, and that's gonna connect the Blue Trail up on top of the hill down to Adams Road. The Krog East Coast Greenway Study, there hasn't been a lot of discussion on that recently, except for DOT, and I wanna use the right terminology that they were using, Do you remember, Darren, what DOT was calling it? DOT was reaching out to communities you know, to try to wrap their head around what the towns, you know, were focusing on. So that was really the only activity on the East Coast Greenway Study. You know, CROG, it's not fully endorsed yet because not all the towns, I think, namely East Hartford, hasn't had council endorsement yet. But that's not really changing anything for us. We're still moving forward.

Actually, Rob, has Hartford endorsed it?

You know, I don't I don't know for sure if they have or they may not have either. I don't think they have. Yeah, I think you might be right. That's very possible. The town center to high school. So we we actually this this is monumental. Last week we met with the new railroad operator. and held what's called a diagnostic meeting to specifically discuss how the crossing of the tracks will be handled on that project. As simple as it sounds, yeah, we're just going to put a trail across the tracks. It's a huge deal when it comes to railroads. And we still have to go through the approval process of the new operator. And I can't even begin to, it's the new operators, G and W, but they're, you know, they're operating under like two different hats. And I can't even tell you who they are. It's, it's, it's a little confusing, but they are going to be in town for a long time. They are going to be the operator of the Griffin line. I think it's, it's, it's a 10 year contract with two 10 year extensions. So, yeah, I know. I cringed when I heard that.

And what do they intend to do with it?

Try to find customers to service. That's, you know, that's all I can tell you.

Horrible, horrible news.

Yeah, I know. I know. We knew it was coming. I mean, there was nothing. You know, we we tried to get the department to. There is mixed feelings about whether it should remain rail or should it be abandoned and converted to a trail. I think that's a higher level than I can get involved in politically. Tyler Street to Rockwell Park. Well, it's actually Tyler Street to Louisville Avenue. So we, and this is going to be on Darren now, unfortunately, but we were kind of waiting. So we had our first public information meeting. Preliminary design is done. You know, you all know it wasn't well received by everyone. Kevin was there, thank goodness, because he was very helpful in at least getting people to understand what it's like to live near the trail and have a trail nearby. We were waiting for the budget to be finalized and approved before we scheduled the next meeting. So now that that's behind us, I think it makes sense to set up the follow-up meeting that I promised the residents we would have. I'll have Darren work on that. It's going to take, it's probably going to take a month because we have to put notices in the paper. We have to send out mailings. It's a little bit involved too.

We should get going on that and make, make sure we all know about it. Yeah.

Oh yeah, for sure. For sure.

I missed the last one.

Right. And besides the scheduling issue, um, I think it's gonna be very important to have some experts, some subject matter people who can talk about crime, what these things do to neighborhoods, how they improve the neighborhoods, how they improve property values, how they improve, actually they improve any crime statistics because now you have eyes on the street. And I think it's going to be very important to have our police police department there to indicate that once this is online, there will be more patrols. There will be bike patrols. I mean, I think one of the things was, you know, and this is no offense to you, Rob and the other colleagues, you know, you go in there with the engineering plans and they look great, but that's not, that's not what, you know, people's concerns. They're very nebulous and they don't know what happens in these things. And I mean, This is a place where you may want to reach out to Steve Mitchell and get somebody from Simsbury because they had a lot of controversy over a couple sections in Simsbury of the Farmington Canal Trail. And again, once they put it in, all of a sudden people are building little pathways down to the trail.

And that indeed is happening in Bloomfield as well.

For sure.

I have a pathway from my house to the trail.

And the activity on the trail over there is just great. We just are happy about it.

We just talked to one of your neighbors on Duncaster today, and I asked him, if you're crossing Duncaster on the trail heading toward Sibsbury, he's the house on the right there, the newer house. Paul Butler maybe is his name?

Not Butler, Baldwin.

Baldwin, yeah, maybe.

I sold him my lot there.

Oh, no kidding. So I asked him, hey, what's it like to live next to the trail? And he's like, you know, my daughter thinks it's the best thing about my house.

It helped me sell a lot.

Yeah.

And the guy on the other side, I caught him out. He is a... I caught him out on the trail doing some landscaping work, cleaning around the bushes on the trail.

Nice.

As a volunteer.

Yeah, that's great.

So, I mean, people that live next to it love it.

Yeah. Yeah. So I do think that when we schedule that meeting.

Make sure I'm there.

Yeah. But having a few people dealing with those more sociological factors is. I'll.

I was kind of hoping that Mark Jewell would have been able to chime in more about that. Because you know Mark Jewell. Oh, yeah. And he's been to more of these public info sessions on trails than anyone I know. But, you know, his attitude is, you know, this is a time for people to speak. And, you know, you're not there to answer questions. You're there to listen. But I think we're beyond that at this point.

Oh, we're there to sell it.

Yes, yes, exactly. And that's what you know, that's why we need the politicians there and we need the town manager there. That's going to be.

That's a good idea, too.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I can I can bring the mayor as well.

Yeah, yeah. He's already talked to him about going. I think he's on board with going. I don't think that's a problem. But yeah, please, Joe, whatever you can do.

I have a comment. I think at those hearings, I think the main purpose of them is to ask the abutters what we can do on the trail to make it better for them, whether it be putting up a fence or landscaping. Whatever we can do in addition to actually paving the trail.

Yeah. I would like to point out what it looks like, and we've talked about this, and I'm not sure we can do all that. What we've done in the present part of the Green River, the part that goes by my house has bushes along it and grass. And it's a linear park. It's a beautiful place. And we can try to do that because the trolley tracks right away is not a beautiful place right now. And we can try to make it a more beautiful place.

I was going to kind of ask that it's not all that wide. Could the whole width of it be cleaned up and landscaped for the trail?

Well, that's a good question, whether we really want to do that or not. And the town is kind of obligated to mow it, which it will do anyway.

Of course, I think Eversource would... Like it all kept. Oh, yes. Kept short.

It's like it kept short for sure. Helps them out. You know, it's you know, we're somewhat limited in how much we can, you know, clear and maintain because it is an old railroad bed and it's mounted like one. And there's ditches with with wetland soils and intermittent water courses on either side for, you know, stretches of it. So, yeah. We really can't touch that. But our plan was to keep a five-foot, kind of very similar to what we do up at your place, Joe, up at the trailer.

How wide would that be? Would it be eight feet or ten feet?

No, it's ten feet, right, Darren? We're ten there. Definitely not eight feet. 10 feet wide, yeah, right. Yeah, because it's a little tight to fit it on the, you know, we're fitting it, you know, between the existing utility pole line and trying to keep it on top of the old trolley bed, so there's limited space.

Are there tracks there for the trolley?

No, they've been removed. No. They've been removed. So, so that, yeah, I, you know, we, we all know once it's built, everyone's going to love it. It's just trying to convince them of that.

Everybody doesn't, they never like change.

Yeah, no, they don't. They don't.

Okay. Well, I guess we can go ahead on that, but can you go back and say, what does Darren need to do next on, on the center to high school, the track crossing, do we need to pursue them further?

No, so we have a consultant who's going to advance the design based on the diagnostic meeting we had with the railroad and DOT. So that's moving forward on its own. You know, Darren just needs to, you know, manage them to make sure they stay on track.

That's the only hold up for that length.

Yeah, yeah.

Where are we on the other stretch?

Yeah, but that's actually next on my list, the high school to Toby Road. So coincidentally, we have a pretty big meeting tomorrow with DOT at Public Works. DOT and the consultant, Mark Jewell, as well, is coming in to negotiate kind of the last component of the scope which is the man hours so we have the scope all defined we know what we need for them in order to design a trail the last part of it is negotiating the man hours which is basically it's technically not the dollar amounts it's just it's just the man hours which eventually does translate to the cost um And we're a little bit far apart right now with the consultant on what the town and DOT estimates it should cost and what the consultant thinks it should cost. And I can't rattle off the man hours, but basically we're in the neighborhood of like $1.3 million for design of this thing. And we're thinking it should be, you know, maybe 10 to 15% less than that. So tomorrow is the big negotiation to get them to come down. I mean, for the town, either way, it's 100% paid, 80% federal, 20% state. So, you know, it won't... You know, it doesn't impact the town financially, no matter what happens. But, you know, in fairness to taxpayer dollars, we have to get them to be reasonable with their fee and taxes. you know, how much it's going to cost to design.

Is this going to be like a sidewalk? What's the name of that street?

Tyler Street.

Tyler, is that going to be like a sidewalk or is it going to be part of the road?

It's going to be just like the trail is at the north end of Tunxis Ave, you know, right at Day Hill Road there. Okay, okay. Yeah, very similar to that.

Okay, so it's going to not take part of the road. It's going to be kind of replacing...

Replacing the existing sidewalk with a multi-use trail.

10-foot wide?

Yes, yes. There's plenty of right-of-way there to fit a trail. I think Tyler Street's a 60-foot right-of-way, fortunately, so there's lots of room.

And it's going to be on the east side of Tyler Street?

The west side.

Oh, the other side.

Yeah, because that way it lines up with... There's already a multi-use trail at 330 Park that goes up to the school, that goes up to Carmen Erase. So it's in line with that. It works out better for one of the culvert crossings as you get closer to Cottage Grove. And then it saves a crossing at Cottage Grove. You only have to cross one approach of that intersection. You won't have to cross it twice. So there's a lot of good reasons for it to be on the west side.

Okay, okay. So that means that the leg we're doing now to... The Hills Avenue is... That's true. We will have to cross Tyler Street. Yeah.

And that's actually the connection to Tyler to Blue Hills. The crossing of Tyler Street is actually in the high school to Toby Road project, not in the Tyler to Blue Hills, if you follow what I'm saying. We're not crossing Tyler Street with the Blue Hills, the Tyler Street project. We're crossing it with the other project. The other project has more funding, and it made more sense to put it in that project because of that.

Also, so the people we'll be addressing with the meeting we're going to have with the neighbors, there'll be a whole different set of neighbors because it's the other side of Tyler Street.

Yeah. Yep.

That's good because that makes it easier.

I don't think we'll have too much. I don't think we'll have quite the same opposition for that project as we did for...

It's going to take away a sidewalk they're supposed to shovel and replace it with a wider sidewalk that the town will take care of.

Well, I mean, that's something we need to discuss. Public Works needs to figure that out and be prepared to talk on it at the public info meeting, but we're a year away from that. So we got time. We got time. So yeah, that's the big news with that one, this scoping meeting. And once everything is agreed to, then the state will initiate a project authorization letter and we'll be able to, you know, enter into contract with the consultant and they can start kick off their design, which is going to start with the survey.

Now we know that that is going to go alongside the track, excuse me, not, going inside the tracks from College Grove into Hartford. But it's only going to go to, what's the name of the street? Toby? Toby.

Yeah, it's only going to go to Toby, and it's actually not going to be in the Griffin line right away. It's going to be on Bonnie Berkowitz's land over there.

Have we talked to Bonnie about it?

Yeah. Yes, I have.

She's okay?

She's okay with it, yeah. Yeah. good because i would think she would be out i could lean on her if you needed me no no i mean you know it's it's fortunately we have the powers of the state's eminent domain on this project um you know not that we like to push that on anyone but but but it has to go through that process anyway yeah okay she she's supportive of this anyway so yeah great great i'm sorry say that again darren That was Kevin, I think.

No, no, I just said she's supportive of the Greenway going through there and the way they want to re, you know, her Economic Development Commission is working on making that area more of an arts area. place to go and i think having the bike trail through there you know helps that i mean ultimately we've got to connect it to the rest of the infrastructure around there but that's i mean and part of that is waiting for hartford and getting through the university of hartford and do on all i mean we we may put a road into the university of hartford at some point so it's you know Yeah, we need to.

I don't know if you guys have heard, but the town manager is supporting, you know, tremendously supporting a project on Granby Street. I'm not 100% sure how it's going to look. We did some concepts, but I picture it being potentially being a multi-use trail on one side of the road or a sidewalk extension on Granby Street. And I think that's in support of Bonnie's efforts.

Probably. Yeah.

Yeah. To improve the look of of Granby Street, you know, decorative lighting, some street trees, you know, that that sort of thing. So that's actually going to be that may actually be on the next council agenda for the funding for the funding of that.

I hadn't even heard about it. So anyway, I, I think it's interesting. The University of Hartford just doesn't seem terribly interested in East Coast Greenway becoming.

I know. I know.

I don't understand. If I were them, I would be all excited about it.

I think everyone's equally frustrated, including, you know, including DOT and, and, you know, Mark Jewell has mentioned his frustrations to me about, you know, his meeting, the meetings he's had with UHart.

Yeah.

That was too bad.

So moving up. So we still don't know where Arford's going to end up or where they're at for.

No, I mean, recent one that I talked, I think at the last transportation committee meeting or. A recent meeting I had where, you know, Hartford had its trail person at, I asked them, you know, what's going to be the city's focus? And they clearly stated Keeney Park is going to be the focus, you know, for their multi-use trails. So, you know, it's not going to be the Griffin line. I think we saw that coming. Yeah. But, you know, that's good for us because, you know, we have our trail getting to Blue Hills Avenue and, you know, we have DOT looking at Cottage Grove, so...

And we need at some point to get Windsor involved for that small part.

I have. Suzanne Choate's been at Public Works with the first meeting we had with DOT on that Cottage Grove trail. She was at it. She's the town engineer in Windsor.

Okay. Sometime we're going to have another trail going across from West Hartford through Singers area to Olin College Grove and to the South Windsor Bridge to West Hartford. there's a very logical place to have a cross cross trail of some sort, but that's in the future. But I'm wondering how that tank, if we, if we, if we go to Toby road, is it possible that it could cut over from there to the park or does that really dictate?

I think the blue Hill, I think the Tyler to blue hell, blue Hills Avenue project gets you much closer to Windsor than, than any other project we have, you know, in the, in the works right now. And then the Rockwell Park project actually takes the trolley line trail down to Cottage Grove or almost to Cottage Grove. So there's a couple of different options there. The state could extend it from Rockwell Park or they could extend it from Blue Hills.

I think the point that is being made here, and of course, this is the thing you and I went through, Rob, with the what's Hartford's preference, because our preference should line up with their preference. And we were told repeatedly it was the Griffin line into town that way. And it looks like it's working out the other way, which doesn't surprise me just because of the difficulties with the Griffin line. But I do think that, again, I don't think we ever have any problem we always felt that we would have trails to both areas. And if all we end up with is a connector out to our Toby road, Granby street area, that becomes a conduit for, you know, enhancing that neighborhood, trying to make it an artsy, you know, or more steampunk type area or something. I think that's fine. I think it would be a tragedy though for, what the chair is saying I just think it's a tragedy not to connect to the University of Hartford because one of the visions for this has always been this is the way you know students there can easily get into Bloomfield by other means other than cars and they just seem to have become a forfeits mentality out there it's very strange you know there really is no close shopping centers for the students there it could be a

You know, a simple bike ride to Capaco for them. Yeah.

Well, as you know, the other thing that's unfortunate is that, you know, they sold off that property along Cottage Grove that they're building a small shopping plaza in, which, you know, we couldn't do anything about that. But, you know, that could be another problem.

Just so you know, Kevin, that developer, so I, you know, DOT has the signal project in construction right now on Cottage Grove, the first phase, if you will. And when I first saw that project come through and the development that you're speaking of come through, I asked the state, hey, can you extend the sidewalks up to this development? Because they're going to be putting in sidewalks or something.

No, they are because we required that.

Yeah. The state looked at it, finally got them to look at it. And there are some restrictive grades out there. They would have needed to get rights to build the sidewalk. So they they backed off of extending the sidewalk and they're just going to put the sidewalks in at the intersection, just the ramps. But, you know, the developer has been aware of this the whole time. And when he found that out, he he He's balking at putting in his walk. So just be aware, he may be coming back to P&Z to ask for kind of a waiver of putting in the walks, if you will, on that property. And we definitely, I don't think we should be waiving that.

Thank you for that.

We'll probably connect to it.

Right. I mean, that's been the thing in E&Z is always the, well, you just have this segment here. And so, yeah, but eventually if we have segments here, here, here, we'll connect them, you know. That's got to be the point.

Um, the, the next, the next, um, project on my list is town center today, Hill road. And, and, you know, that that's, um, you know, at this point, no, no news on that. It, it, it's, you know, kind of going to be up to the department's hands or if the next round of, um, transportation alternatives comes out, it would be a good project to apply for.

It's a good thing we have an alternate route though. Yeah. I mean, you know, rail is looking less and less like, I mean, to have rails with trails there, it's not wide enough.

Yeah. Right. I know.

And it would be very expensive to fill in.

We'll have to, we'll have to, you know, some time will have to be put into the exact, you know, when, when, when the funding opportunity comes about for that, You know, somebody's going to sit down with you guys and just and just hammer out the route that, you know, wants to be applied for.

Well, that would be Darren, I think. Right. Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, who knows? I can't even tell you when that's going to be. But but that'll probably that'll need to happen. Let's see, some non-trail related projects you guys may want to know about. And Bob and Bill, you guys were at this public info meeting for the School Street project. which was much better received. We still had some people more upset with other things than the project, but overall, I think that public information meeting went well. And, you know, we were able to get the designer to, you know, advance that design beyond preliminary design. And that project, so that project, I think I might have mentioned this last time. That project included some intersection work at Wittenberry and School Street. Since we started the project, the state had initiated a roundabout project at the same intersection.

I didn't tell you that? It's a good thing because my daughter towed the car there at one point.

And they studied it quite in depth. I mean, I'll pull up a plan. Are you guys interested in seeing the concept plan for that? Yeah, I am. Yeah, give me one sec. I'll pull it up.

We have some Seabury people here.

Yeah, they got to see it. Bill and Bob got to see it. Yeah.

Every time we go through, there we go. There needs to be a roundabout here.

Well, see, I mean, roundabouts are expensive and lots of typically doesn't have enough funding to pay for them. That's why, you know, it really didn't make sense to include it in the lots of project. But, you know, the state's got more money to to do those sorts of things.

So they also like roundabouts because they're cheaper than lights. So cheap changing red lights is very expensive, apparently.

Right. Well, traffic signals, they're not as expensive as roundabouts, but they require maintenance, more maintenance. Just give me a second. It's opening. There we go. Let me share.

If you can talk them into putting a couple in the center of town, that would be good too. Can you see that?

Nice.

Yeah, isn't that great? So are we doing this? So we're not doing it, but the state is advancing at this day. I mean, we don't have a commitment on it yet, but we've been told it's – so they did a statewide roundabout study, and this intersection, for whatever reason, scored at the top of their list, and they're advancing it.

Yeah, I mean, I don't understand why it wouldn't. Every time you go through there, this should be a roundabout. It's just that simple.

Yep. So here it is.

Excellent. Where's the sidewalk through the roundabout?

It's the orange. The orange lines are the sidewalks.

And those are the sidewalks specifically for the roundabout portion, which connect with the sidewalk for the rest.

Yes. So so since since they are I'm going to stop since they are, you know, building the intersection for us. it gives us a little more money to extend the sidewalk to Seabury, which we have that petition, you know, that was submitted to council for. So I've already talked to CROG. They're in favor of that change in the scope of the project. I think it's going to be a little bit more money, but we'll be able to, you know, have a continuous sidewalk from Metacomet School all the way up to Seabury, you know. That's great. Yeah.

Which side of Wittenberry will the sidewalk go to Seabury?

So the plan right now is to extend the sidewalk up the west side of School Street, so the same side as Metacomet School, cross Wittenberry, and then go west on Wittenberry to Seabury.

Where the Seabury driveway is, the main driveway?

Right, the first driveway, the Easterly driveway, that Easterly driveway at Seabury. First driveway.

Not the main driveway, the first driveway.

Yes, first driveway.

The sidewalk is on the Seabury side.

That's right, Bill, yes.

Okay, thank you. All right.

So that was exciting. That was good news on that project.

That's great news.

And Kevin, I'm sure Lori has already heard, but the Maple Avenue traffic calming project is going to be advertised for construction tomorrow. Ah, good. She knows. Darren and I, Darren, we had to pull that project from our consultant because she just couldn't do it. So Darren's been working on that and we wrapped it up literally today and it's going to be advertised tomorrow with a July 8th bid opening.

Excellent. So you're not much behind. Because she was like saying... No, I mean, hopefully not, but... Yeah, no, I mean, what you and I talked about before was the RFP was going to go out at the end of May. The last time we talked, the end of May. And then, you know, we'd get somebody at the beginning of July that's still going to be, you know, the RFPs would be back. And we've got the, you know, the selection committee has to do it.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I told her the big thing was going to be once they started... what happens with winter, you know, in December. Yeah.

I mean, hopefully, you know, it's designed to, um, you know, handle snow removal and plows and, um, you know, without, without being a problem. So. Yeah.

Rob, Rob, could you, I miss it. What's our next step on the center to, um, Going north.

I mean, basically, we need to wait for a funding opportunity, you know, whether it's through the state or when we apply for ourselves.

Now, at one point, your predecessor said that was too long a stretch because you never get the financing for it. But we actually have a longer stretch already. We've got financing for it.

Yeah, well, it's... You know, the Transportation Alternative Program could potentially, you know, be, could potentially, they could potentially agree to build that whole gap.

So, Darren, are you all set to go after that? Do we have to apply for it?

Well, yeah, I mean, I don't know if that's a we would do a lots up or I mean, I guess we have to look at what the cost would be and everything.

Yeah, I think it's a it's a, you know, transportation alternatives is the right program. I don't think lots of, you know, lots of caps out at like $5 million. And it's it's it's too long a project for $5 million.

There isn't a good way to break it in two either.

Right.

Unless we take the other route. The other route, we could probably die.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I agree with you, Joe.

There's some options. Yeah, lots of lots of in transportation alternatives are the two primary funding sources for trail projects.

Yeah, because because the I mean, the one advantage to the alternative now, especially with the stuff going on with the Griffin line, especially with a 30 year contract, potential 30 year contract for nothing. It just seems crazy. but there's a lot of reasons to go to the reservoir. I mean, there's things in the reservoir and that could also reactivate some of the reservoir stuff. And as the chair points out, that's an easy dividing point, either that or get it across the road to the land trust property and then get it to the land trust property. And then you're waiting to get it into town which is a little bit dependent on how we end up redoing the town center.

But that's still possible. Sorry, Joe.

I was going to say that the next round of lots of the town may decide it wants to focus on the town center and not an extension of the Greenway You know, John Coleman's already mentioned to me.

Oh, are you redoing the roads at the town center?

Yeah. Yeah. So just, you know, that could, you know, happen.

Okay. So that's, I don't know if I'll be able to convince them that the bike path is more important.

Yeah.

The bike path has to go through the town center, so the two are tied together.

It does.

And the town center is going to be a very stretched out project anyway, so the two will have to go simultaneously.

Well, John wanted me to apply... um to the last round the the you know the round that i applied for woodland avenue he wanted me to apply for the town center i'm like john we don't know what's happening there like i what am i applying for you know all we have is a napkin you know back of a napkin concept you know so um there's really nothing to apply for yet but it's you know it's coming

Okay.

So that, yeah, that's, that's, Darren, anything else you can think of? I think that that's everything.

No, I think that's everything. Yeah.

Can I ask just one question, which is a little for a field? Do you have a time start now for the Simsbury connector to connect to the Farmington Canal Trail and the Terrafield Trail?

I don't. I haven't heard anything more.

I have heard some very bad news. They found out the bridges cost a lot of money. And I don't think, I think they're going to have to redo the route completely. And I thought that when they came up with it, I said, wow, they can have money to build a bridge. That bridge across the Farmington River would cost millions and millions of dollars because they don't do a halfway job. Granby had to come up with a bridge. East Granby. East Granby. Was it East Granby? I know what you're talking about. They thought it would be a little cheap thing that the town could do. But I think Simsbury has worked out –

know the the issues that came up with their transportation alternatives project and and i i think they you know the department is moving forward with similar to our project you know they they have to go through you know a quality based selection process to choose a designer and they may not have gotten that green light yet but i think it's coming

Well, and I thought the last time you and I spoke about that, Rob, I thought you mentioned to Joe's point that the state was now going to take over the bridge part and put that in with the family. Yeah, I think you're right. So I heard that this is a go.

It's going. It's happening. Yeah, it's going to happen.

Well, that'd be great.

Yeah. So because sooner the better. Yeah.

That's important to us because we don't want a road going to nowhere. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Okay. I guess we're done then, Rob. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Anything to add?

No, just thank you. I look forward to working with you guys in the near future.

Okay. We normally have quarterly meetings, but we need to worry about the get-together on the trolley.

Yes.

right away. So that's, that's the next issue, I guess. And the continuing on those, but I really think we need to keep, keep an eye on all sections and we keep everything moving. So, and, but Rob, it's been so great to have you over the last two years. You've done, you've done a fantastic job for us.

Thank you. Yeah. It's been a pleasure.

We'll have to name part of the road after you.

I don't know about that. Yeah, no, it's been great. It's been fun to You know, it's fun to, you know, I wish I could have put more projects into construction, but, you know, it's been fun.

You did more than anybody else has done in that period of time. Yes.

It's really been great. And what's wonderful is that you're, the flexibility, because, you know, and you've looked at things and said, well, can we do this and can we do that? And we just have so many more projects going as a result.

Are you going to be in the area where you might be able to come back briefly to work on things?

There's a chance I might be looking for some part-time work.

You'll appear as one of those consultants, right?

I've got to figure it out.

We have so many experienced people leaving this summer, and many of them have said, well, I'd really be happy to come back for some part-time work. I mean, we're so worried about the brain drain that this huge retirement program is causing mostly, so yours as well. So, okay, well, thank you anyway. I'd like to speak for a moment on new business about, I gave a soul searching speech to all St. Andrews. It was out last Sunday. And I, I, I was asked to talk about the East Coast Greenway. Well, they had the blessing of the bicycles, which I thought was a great thing. We got blessed as well, which probably was more needed than the bicycles. But I was asked to speak by Corey for maybe five minutes. And I said, I can't do that. I'll end up talking half an hour. So I put my, what I really wanted to say about the bike path in the East Coast Greenway, Bloomfield, Connecticut, East Coast Greenway group page on Facebook. And it went on and on and on. I won't bore you with all of it, but it had information about how people resist the bike path until they get it next to them. And I spoke about one of our neighbors who fought the bike path. And she said, it's going to go right through my garden. And she built a garden over on the railroad right away. She was encroaching. And so she came down to town hall and she said, okay, we'll just have it go around you a little bit. And there's a little bend in the present greenway. It goes around your garden. It's the funniest looking thing, but It has a little character. I don't like straight lines anyway, so it has a little character, the greenway. But now she fought it, but now she sits out in her garden and talks to people as they go by. It's really a neighborly thing. Somebody driving by your house in a car isn't very neighborly, but boy, when they come walking by, whether walking your dogs or even on bicycles, to sit and talk to you, tell you, you know, where they come from. And it's just such a nice thing. And I talked about how the East Coast Greenway bike paths make your neighborhood grow. Suddenly people from a mile away, it used to be a separate neighborhood, you know, you operate in a silo, but the Greenway connects you. And so they become part of your neighborhood. And it went both directions. We used to bike in our neighborhood and you couldn't get out of my neighborhood on a bicycle without going up or down a hill. And, you know, so that was kind of a barrier. Now we can go on the bike path and it's flat. And one of the nice things about the bike path, like the railroad that used to be there, is it has to be on a flat surface. So I talked about how nice that was. It does allow, I think, a five degree pitch. And there is one right at the maximum, which our prior engineer allowed as it went into 189. Yeah, that's what I mean. Down the hill to go through the careful gorge. And my wife says, I got to go off my bike for that. That's not much of a pitch, but I've got a grandpa gear on my bike, so I haven't have a problem. I can just take up and down those things, but she doesn't. Anyway, so now we have a room spring pool, a neighborhood swimming pool that is really... Now it's part of the neighborhood. People from Terraville are coming. coming by bike or walking. And they're now part of our neighborhood. I'm so thrilled. Our membership is at a peak because these people, I'm terrified with all these kids. And they said, oh, this is wonderful. We have a place to go swimming. And so they come and it's just a nice thing to have it. And I was talking about my, I love to capture my imagination that you can get on your bicycle and go all the way to Florida. And, you know, it's just a dream. And I get all romantic and a little gushy about it, but it's kept me going because I really think that East Coast Greenway is a fantastic thing, and I'm so happy it's going through the town I love. I mean, it's got to be, what, nine miles or so? over a million dollars a mile, but it's not coming from our taxpayers. That's rails and trails money. Obviously, Trump hasn't stopped it yet. I'm afraid he might, so I'm glad we've got all... We need to build fast. Right. And... So I remember going, I'm not a member of that church, but I love that. It's a beautiful place, Old St. Andrews. And my parents are buried there, and I have reserved a place, and I'm just so happy it's going to be on the East Coast Greenway. Thank you. Yeah, I spent an eternity next to East Coast Greenway.

And they have been pretty big proponents. That church has been big proponents of the Greenway. Oh, they have been wonderful.

They have been so supportive of it. They open their doors. I don't want to say this too loud, but they still unlock. We can use their bathrooms. I mean, they've been great. Of course, they advertise it as a place worth finding, right? and they have been kind of lost, but now they're on the I-95 of bike paths. So, I mean, people are going to know where they are. So it's got to be an easy place to find. But I just get so excited, and I guess I infuse enthusiasm there. I told them about how we were progressing as they asked me to do that. But anyway, so there is an enormous support for the bike path in town. It's just taking so long until – Until Rob got involved, it seemed like it was moving at a very glacial pace, but now it's really speeded up. And to be able to say we have money for everything but the last stretch, basically. And that's great. And the route and plans for that. So everything's moving. So I really think we need to... get that last stretch moving somehow. Maybe we divide it into two stretches if it makes it quicker. And maybe we have to just abandon our rails with trails, because I really don't think that's going to happen. And maybe holding out for that is just a mistake at this time. I've always thought it just seems so dumb that that railroad has to exist. The town doesn't want it. Nobody in town cares about it. It's just a nuisance. And... We all have the railroad dreams Towns had in the past, but there's just no future for that railroad. So anyway. So that's enough on that.

And just to, that's the reason really right now, besides the gaps in Bloomfield, that's why we get the Simsbury-Terrafield gap filled. Because as soon as you fill that gap, you have a complete trail for at least from Day Hill Road, you get people from Terrafield, you have people that run Spring from Simsbury once that trail's done.

We already do, but there'll be more of them. Right.

So, yeah.

So. But, okay, is there any other new business people would like to bring? So, okay. Any public comments? Okay. What's that? Yeah, yeah, sure.

Just real quick, I came from Simsbury before the CEC meeting today because the sustainability commission there was doing a debrief on the sustainability fair that they co-hosted with Simsbury Public Library and Bloomfield was invited to participate this year. So one of the things that they would like to do is engage the bicycle community more in next year's fair. So they were floating the idea of like how to do that. But they were also talking about, gee, wouldn't it be nice because they're, you know, Bloomfield's involved. It's Bloomfield, Simsbury, Avon, and Farmington wants to get involved. And so the thought is, since you have rail trails in all those towns now, maybe have a dedicated day to do invasive cleanup work, invasive plant cleanup work. But those are the two things I wanted to mention, kind of on the environmental plant front, doing invasive removal. And I thought Bloomfield would be receptive to that, a volunteer effort, but they want to get the biking community more involved as well.

Okay. Okay. Ready to adjourn?

Move we adjourn.

Okay. Second that. We adjourn. Thank you.

Joe, Joe, I'll give you a call to connect with you this week. All right.