Southampton Greenway

The Friends of Southampton Greenway held a monthly series of presentations by people from around the region who are expert on various aspects of trail and greenway development. 

Twenty-one years ago, Dick Williamson became aware of the potential for a rail trail (Bruce Freeman Rail Trail BFRT) passing through his home town of Sudbury.  As an avid cyclist (70,000 commuting miles), he joined the Rails to Trails Conservancy and started attending meetings concerning the proposed trail. 
He quickly became embroiled in a heated give and take between proponents and vociferous emotional opponents, mostly abutters.  The BFRT was shelved for many years during which another rail trail (Wayside or Mass. Central Rail Trail) passing through Sudbury was proposed. 

The Town of Sudbury fully supported this rail trail, but the wealthy town of Weston became a hotbed of opposition.  He got an earful attending numerous hearings in that Town including a huge Town Meeting that voted against the trail.  For that and other reasons, the trail was put on hold. 

When new energy was generated for the BFRT in 2002, he reviewed the bloody lessons learned and was a key organizer of a new local group pushing for the trail.  Dick became a member of the Board of Directors of the Friends of the BFRT and was appointed to the Town of Sudbury's Rail Trail Conversion Advisory Committee.  He is one of the organizers of the new Massachusetts Community Path Coalition.

In his professional life, Dick has a PhD in Physics from MIT and has been associated with the institute for 52 years.  Most of his career has been as a staff member at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. [CLICK HERE for his presentation.]

Robert “Bruce” Donald
Biographical Sketch

Bruce Donald was born on September 12, 1961 in Hartford, Connecticut, and resides in Avon.  He lives with his two children James Donald, 13 and Will Donald, 11.  Educated at Farmington High School, he earned a BA from Middlebury College and an MA from Trinity College.  After eight years as a stockbroker for major U.S. companies he worked as a V.P. in marketing and administration for such companies as Oak Hall Capital Advisors and Innovative Research Associates in New York City. After a stint as CFO of a company building automobiles in China, he opened his own consultancy, Argyll Associates in 1996. Since 2004 he has been the President of the Farmington Valley Trails Council (FVTC). He is an active life-long skier and bicyclist, sits on a number of for, and not-for-profit boards, and is a published author, most recently Manhood and Patriotic Awakening in the American Civil War: The John E. Mattoon Letters, 1859-1866. Lansdown, MD: University Press, 2008.  

The FVTC was founded in 1992 by Farmington resident Preston Reed as a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation to promote public awareness of the rails-to-trails concept and support the conversion of the abandoned Canal Railroad into the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail and the building of the Farmington River Trail. The FVTC now has over 600 members and 50 active volunteers.  The FVTC has a mission of education and advocacy that has evolved into an effort to provide helpful maintenance for our towns through an Adopt-a-Trail program. The FVTC also funds the building of the trails themselves, notably the Salmon Brook Bridge in East Granby. They provide valuable trail enhancements such as kiosks; water fountains; landscaping; signage; benches, and the large new pavilions at strategic spots along the trail. Starting from scratch, there are now almost 30 miles of paved multi-use trails in the Farmington Valley. CLICK HERE FOR HIS PRESENTATION.

Mark Samsel--a native of Northampton, MA-- lives in Windham NH with his wife and three children next to a former railroad corridor that was converted to a state managed multi-use trail back in the 1970s. A place for motorized dirt bikes.

Over a period of years, he noticed that ATVs were becoming more and more prevalent. On some weekends, hundreds of people and their little machines--many coming from out of state, were converging on the trail raising the typical havoc you might envision. He and his neighbors quickly organized to look into changing its status to becoming a non-motorized linear park. It wasn't easy. 

After gaining support from the Windham Selectmen and Planning Board, they crafted legislation and then went to a district state rep who would need to sponsor the bill to get the state trails agency to relinquish control of the trail.  [They essentially needed to impose a 'restricted use' on a state trail.] 

Since NH's Trails Bureau is funded mostly by ATV and other motorized users, and this was a change not attempted before, the effort was destined to be an uphill battle.  However, in the end, Mark and his group prevailed --taking back the ATV dust bowl and they then began to develop a plan to improve the trail for families, walking, bicycling--and equestrians with a separate stone dust path next to the paved one.

When they pulled the plan together, they did not get state DOT approval for a T-21 or Enhancements Award, so they instead went to local businesses for their support. The trail was then built to DOT specs using only local donated funds and expertise. It was built in 1/3 the time in 1/2 the cost.

Mark has a lot of great stories about doing something everyone considered to be impossible, yet the trail is built, open to the public and the ATVs have left the scene. Quiet has returned to his neighborhood in Windham offering a rail trail experience that is unique to New Hampshire and now looking to expand to its neighbors to the north and south.

Alex Bernhard, a retired partner in international corporate law at Hale and Dorr in Boston, and Myra Mayman, former Director of the Office for the Arts at Harvard, a married couple who share an interest in bicycling and cross-country skiing, co-founded the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail in Merrimack County in 2004.  The group, based in Andover NH, where they now live, is working to create, maintain and promote the Northern Rail Trail in Merrimack County.
 
The Northern Rail Trail is being built on the former Boston and Maine Railroad Northern Line, on which trains ran between Boston and Montreal up until the early 1970’s.  The Merrimack County section of the Rail Trail will ultimately run 34 miles between Danbury and Concord NH.  Once completed, it will connect with the 25-mile Northern Rail Trail in Grafton County that already exists between Danbury and Lebanon NH, and be 59 miles long.  It will connect the Connecticut River Valley with the Lakes Region and will be the longest rail trail in New Hampshire.
 
The notable claim to fame for the Northern Rail Trail is that volunteers pulled out all the ties.  Over 160,000 ties for the entire 59 miles were done on a volunteer basis. The Northern Rail Trail in Merrimack County is a work in progress; to date six miles have been completed.  $330,000 has been raised, $250,000 in a Federal Transportation Enhancement grant, and $80,000 in grants from the recreational trails bureau of the NH Department of Resources and Economic Development. 

FNRT-MC is working to develop community support, connecting with the local historical society and snowmobile clubs as well as with local businesses and the health community. Alex and Myra’s story is about starting a grass roots volunteer organization from scratch and finding shared enthusiasm in the community to reclaim the forlorn former railroad corridor as a greenway for families to enjoy.

        Michael R. Knapik is currently serving his seventh term as the State Senator from the Second Hampden & Hampshire District.  Of the twelve communities in his district, seven have rail trail or greenway projects either open or currently under-development. Some of these are among the most historic [Chester’s Keystone Arch Bridge Trail] and most dramatic [Westfield’s Columbia Greenway] in the northeast.
             He serves as the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Ways & Means.  In this position, Knapik is part of the prestigious House-Senate Conference Committee charged with reconciling the Annual State Budget and other spending plans.  In addition to serving on the Senate Committee on Ways & Means, Knapik also serves on the Senate Committee on Long Term Debt as well as the Legislature’s Joint Committees on Revenue, Bonding, Capital Expenditures & State Assets, and Municipalities & Regional Government.
             Prior to being elected to the Senate, Knapik served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, representing the citizens of Westfield and Montgomery.  Prior to joining the Legislature, Knapik served as Legislative Aide to former House Minority Leader Steven D. Pierce.  Knapik was first elected to public office in 1985 as a member of the Westfield School Committee.  He was 22 at the time.
            Knapik has been honored by several local and statewide organizations for his work in the Legislature. In 2006, he was recognized as “Legislator of the Year” by the Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers.  He has also been honored by both the Executive Office of Elder Affairs with the Eva Hester Award and the Massachusetts Council on Aging Coalition as “Legislator of the Year” for his contributions to issues concerning Massachusetts’ senior citizens.
    Knapik has served on several special legislative commissions charged with studying issues of great importance to the Commonwealth.  Among those commissions, Knapik was a member of the Foundation Budget Review Commission on Education to plan for the continued funding of education reform and he also was appointed as a member of the Commission to Oversee the Centennial of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management and to Plan for the Future of the State Park System.

   Anne Wellington, a Hilltowner from Montgomery, spends her time working as a landscape architect, designer, historic preservationist, and land use consultant.  Although she resides in the Pioneer Valley, her work takes her all along the Eastern Seaboard.  She is a 2004 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Landscape Architecture Program and holds a Masters Certificate in Landscape Design from Radcliffe Seminars, now know as the Landscape Institute at Harvard. 

   As part of her studio work at the University, Anne teamed with classmates to create some of the initial design concepts and feasibility studies of the Manhan River Rail Trail.  Her academic work also offered her the opportunity to create a system of connected greenways in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.   Active in community enrichment project, she was instrumental in the restoration of Grandmothers? Garden in Westfield. 

   While working in the Community Development Office there, she designed the Westfield River Walk, a three-mile soft surface walking trail that follows along the top of the Westfield River Dike.  Among the notable places that Anne has assisted in restoring and preserving are the Emily Dickinson Homestead, the Susan B Anthony House, and Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C., our nation?s first cemetery which celebrated its 200th anniversary last year. 

   Near Lake George in upstate NY, where the French and Indian War began, Anne designed parking facilities and accessible trails for the Ephraim Williams Memorial, an important historic landmark along the Warren County Bike Trail.
   
   Working with the Southampton Community Preservation Committee, Anne facilitated several meetings where residents could share their concerns and comments on the future of Southampton.  Afterwards, she updated the Southampton Open Space Plan and presenting it to the Commonwealth in time for Southampton continued eligibility for grant funding.  It was during the preparation of the Open Space Plan that Southampton citizens once again took up the cause to preserve and develop the defunct rail line into the Southampton Greenway. 

   She is an adventurous outdoors person whose antics have included an exhilarating mountain bike descent of Killington Mountain in Vermont and a barefoot climb of Mount Monadnock in October.  CLICK HERE TO SEE HER PRESENTATION. A 4.9 MEG FILE.

Chapin Spencer lives in Burlington, VT and is one of the founders of the organization called Local Motion. [A greater Burlington non-profit organization that develops trails and fosters active lifestyles -  http://www.localmotion.org ]  Based on the waterfront in downtown Burlington, Chapin—a city councilor at the time-- and his colleagues, set out to develop what has been called—the Holy Grail of Rail Trails in the U.S. –the former Rutland Railroad’s long forgotten corridor to Canada.  Heading north the hard way—through the islands of Lake Champlain—the Rutland’s Island Line was built of marble blocks the size of automobiles, plunked into the lake until causeways were built that connected all the islands.

When the corridor was formally abandoned by the railroad in the early 1960s and sold off to adjacent landowners, several bridges were dismantled creating gaps in the corridor.  Two generations later, Local Motion proposed to reassemble the corridor as a rail trail for bikes and pedestrians. To span the gaps, Local Motion proposed—and made operational— a bicycle-pedestrian ferry to take people across the gaps and onto the causeways to the islands.

The story of Local Motion is a story of can-do spirit, community organizing, and drop-dead scenic beauty of a long forgotten and now rediscovered treasure.  Chapin Spencer’s presentation will tell how it all happened and what lies ahead for his organization and the now nationally recognized trail.    Here's a link to his presentation--as a 6 meg PDF file.

Stan Malcolm has been documenting a small section of the Air Line Trail in Hebron, Connecticut, for over six years. His web site (www.performance-vision.com/airline) offers in excess of 3,000 photos of the trail in all seasons. “In winter I tend to shoot broad landscapes and sunrises, while in warmer months my subjects are more intimate: close ups of insects, plants, and animals”, says Stan.

Walking the same section of trail over the years has given him a dynamic sense of change through time; the almost daily changes in light, flora, and fauna — nuances of animal behavior and interaction that are easily missed when one is not “outthere” constantly. Stan says, “I’ve come to appreciate the details around us that so fascinated naturalists like J. Henri Fabre, Edwin Way Teale, or more recently Berndt Heinrich. Not bad for a boy raised in New York City.”

Stan’s work has received several awards and a feature writeup in the Hartford Courant. His photography has been recognized by first place and People’s Choice awards in the Connecticut Audubon Society’s annual photo contests for 2005 and 2006. Stan’s background includes a BS in Biology, MS in Entomology, and Ph.D. in Evolutionary Systematics.

The Air Line was once a railroad renowned for its relatively straight course from Boston to New York - "as if by a line drawn through the air." You can still find lumps of coal left over from the steam era. Most of Stan’s pictures were taken on the portion of the trail passing through Hebron, Connecticut - from the Jeremy River northeast past Judd Brook, Grayville Falls, Raymond Brook Marsh, and ending at Route 85 in the Amston district. It is about 40 miles from Southampton. His portfolio of pix and the history of the Airline Rail Trail can be found at this site. http://www.performance-vision.com/airline/

After a full and successful career in the financial services industry-and a passion for organized rowing competitions, where he has been a judge-referee for the past 27 years, Norm Thetford joined up with an embryonic group in southern Connecticut called the Farmington Canal Rail-to-Trail Association [FCRTTA] in 1995.
  
Back in those days, advocating for such a new fangled thing like a local rail trail project was a difficult thing. Norm and those early visionaries in Connecticut started small, but their vision took hold and the state of Connecticut saw that developing the corridor from Yale in New Haven to the border with Massachusetts - as a greenway - was a doable and desirable thing to do. Then Governor John Rowland actually made it a priority and other elected officials got on board so the project really began to take shape.

Today the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail - as it is called in CT - is a reality in about 31 of its 54 miles in the Nutmeg State and Norm is now the Executive Director of the organization. His talk in Southampton on December 6th will take in the history of the canal - and later the railroad - and it will be full of heart-warming and interesting stories of the early days of the advocacy effort in getting people to buy into this idea of a linear park.

Tom Michelman of Acton, MA knew next nothing about rail trails, except he liked them, when he joined the nascent Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail (FBFRT) group in 2002.  Tom quickly became active in the FBFRT, became Secretary when the FBFRT incorporated as a 501 (c)(3) in 2004, was voted President in 2006.  You can learn more about the FBFRT at www.brucefreemanrailtrail.org.  As the FBFRT is a purely volunteer organization, Tom also has a professional career as co-founder and principal of Boreal Renewable Energy Development (see www.boreal-renewable.com).  Tom lives in Acton with his wife Mary, and two daughters Julie and Valerie.

Jerry Klima, Chair of the Board of Selectmen in Salisbury, MA  grew up in an active, outdoor-oriented family, living in New York,  Tennessee, Ohio and Alabama.

During high school he spent a year as an exchange student in Denmark and then attended college and law school in Boston.  He served for a year as a law clerk for a Federal judge and then practiced business law as a partner in large law firms in Boston.

While living in Lexington, the former railroad corridor in town under-went conversion to become the Minuteman Bikeway.  For a number of years, his wife Bobbi used the bikeway to commute about 8 miles each way to her job near Fresh Pond in Cambridge. They both used it often for recreation.

He retired about 8 years ago and moved to Salisbury.  He became involved in a number of civic activities there such as serving on the Planning Board and got involved in other Town projects, including taking over the local water company, Chairing a Zoning Review Committee and working on developing trails and greenways.  He was elected a Selectman in 2004 and re-elected in 2007.  He is now Chairman of the Board of Selectmen.