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FOUR COMMUNITIES SIGN AGREEMENT

Multiuse trail expansion discussed

By Matthew Stone mstone@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

The vision is for a multiuse recreational trail that begins in Monmouth, runs east through Winthrop and Manchester and connects with the Kennebec River Rail Trail in Hallowell.

It's uncertain at this point what route the rail trail extension would follow, how it would be funded or when it could be open to the public.

Deciding all of that is the work of a nascent group of representatives from Hallowell, Manchester, Monmouth and Winthrop who expect to start meeting in the coming weeks.

Their work is an outgrowth of Winthrop's recently completed comprehensive plan, which identifies the expansion of biking and walking trails as one of 10 top priorities for the area.

"There's been a ton of public interest" in more trails, said Amy Lawson, of Winthrop, who's been asked to convene the work group's meetings.

"People are interested in finding a new way to commute to work," said Lawson, the executive director of the Western Kennebec Economic Development Alliance. "People feel like we live in an area with so many beautiful outdoor assets, but we don't have a way to access them easily."

Councilors and selectmen in the four involved municipalities signed agreements last week that will allow them to partner on an interlocal trail project. The towns are also looking for residents interested in joining the work group.

"At this point, they're just trying to refine the idea, find out what's possible, find out what's even within reach," Lawson said.

Once they start meeting, group members can capitalize on the work others have done in recent years to locate potential trail corridors, said Tom Reeves, a Gardiner resident and secretary of the Friends of the Kennebec River Rail Trail.

"They don't have to reinvent everything," he said.

In 2007, Reeves and the Farmington-based Center for Community GIS completed a report for the nonprofit MaineWatch Institute that maps recreational trails, defunct railways and other off-road corridors for 14 towns in the Augusta, Gardiner and Winthrop areas.

"What we attempted to do was map anything that could potentially be a trail," Reeves said.

West of Augusta, the MaineWatch report identifies the corridor of a defunct trolley line well known to many. It began in Winthrop's village center, ran along the shore of Maranacook Lake on what is today Memorial Drive, crossed current-day U.S. Route 202 and eventually wound into Augusta on Western Avenue.

While the trolley corridor might be viable as a trail, it's unknown which sections are privately owned, which are public and who has rights of way over the properties.

"We looked at what is physically there," Reeves said. "We did not study who owns what."

The Merrymeeting Trail Initiative, which is proposing a southward extension of the Kennebec River Rail Trail, also has used the MaineWatch map to start planning its own rail trail corridor.

The group -- which has been working on a corridor through Gardiner, Richmond, Bowdoinham and Topsham since May 2008 -- currently has an engineering firm working on a conceptual study for the trail extension, Reeves said.

While the details about the Kennebec River Rail Trail's westward expansion are scarce, there's reason to be excited about efforts to add to the rail trail, said James Goulet, director of Augusta's Parks, Cemeteries and Trees Bureau and a representative on the trail's Board of Supervisors.

"I really do appreciate that folks are looking at these opportunities," he said. "We have a delightful trail; the amount of traffic the trail gets is absolutely incredible."

David Auclair, president of the Friends of the Kennebec River Rail Trail and owner of Auclair Cycle & Ski in Augusta, said an expanded rail trail network could become something of a tourist attraction in central Maine.

"There's no doubt the Kennebec River Rail Trail is coming to attract destination riders," he said.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com