2009 Annual Report
December 29, 2009
2009 brought a year with the Windham Rail Trail again gaining in its
popularity and use! Founded in 2004, the Windham Rail Trail Alliance is
dedicated to the development and management of this section of trail as a paved
rail trail which is part of the planned
Salem
to Concord Rail Trail.
Highlights include the success of the second annual “Flat
n’ Fast” 5k road race held on June 7. With 225 participants, overall winner
was Doug Aniscow of Derry and for the second year in a row, Kate Farrell of
Windham
! We will again hold our 2010 race
in June.
2 Eagle Scout Projects
were completed by Jared Garfield and Kevin Delfosse members of Windham Troop
266. Jared completed a bridge off
the trail that will lead to our planned 2nd sitting area overlooking
a beaver pond. The end result is a very rugged and functional bridge that will
accent another attractive trail feature. Kevin lead the development of a sharp
looking kiosk located at the Depot. The Kiosk affords 3 panels of protection for
signage planned for 2010. We will continue to offer the trail as a focal point
to foster several Eagle Scout projects in the near future, and are proud to
offer such opportunities. We are also grateful to the Windham Boy Scout Troops
263 and 266 for their efforts.
Approximately 280 hours were spent on maintenance by several individuals
on brush cutting, trash removal, removing downed trees and the critical chore of
clearing the trail and drainage cuts of leaves. We held a successful trail clean
up day in April, which we will repeat in 2010.
We also recognize and thank those users who contribute in their own way,
picking up and keeping the trail clean. We receive many accolades as to the
clean shape of the trail. The WRTA also continues its support planned
restoration of Windham Depot project, assisting in those efforts.
The Conservation Commission contributed $38k from their Current Use
Fund account to assist us in meeting our $60K obligation towards the final
paving phase costs. With the economic downturn, anticipated donations that would
have covered this amount did not occur. We are thankful to the Commission for
continuing their partnership, and will look to fundraising opportunities to pay
the balance.
The Granite State Wheelmen recreational bicycling club awarded five $1,000
grants to rail trail groups within the state and the WRTA was one of the
selections. A total of ten groups
submitted applications for the five available grants. The grants will be used by
the winning groups to help them continue the conversion of rail trails to bike
and pedestrian paths through out
New Hampshire
.
The WRTA joined forces with the
Salem
and
Derry
organizations to form the Southern NH Rail Trail Alliance. This group was
formed to bring focus to a Transportation Enhancement grant jointly applied for
the development of the first 2/3 mile of Salem Rail trail joining south of our
section, a box culvert in Derry at
Bowers Road
, and for
Windham
, funding to complete the .6 mile section from
Roulston Rd
to
Range Rd.
We will have the selection results by March 2010.
We continue to provide consulting and engineering assistance to the Derry
Rail Trail Alliance, who successfully completed another ¾ mile section south of
Kendall Pond Road
. The remaining section is tentatively scheduled for June 2010, connecting to
Windham
.
The WRTA
remains active on the state trail level, having Board of Director roles on the
newly formed New Hampshire Rail Trails Coalition.
As always, the Windham Rail Trail Alliance is thankful for
the support from town officials and the kind words from our users. We are
excited for 2 major changes that 2010 will bring, first the Depot building
renovation, Depot parking lot repaving and the completion of the Derry Rail
Trail connection to
Windham
that will offer 8 miles of paved trail, an exclamation point for recreation in
Windham
and
New Hampshire
!
Respectfully submitted,
Mark Samsel, President, Windham Rail Trail Alliance
Copyright © 2010 Windham Rail Trail
Alliance
| 