Mapping the controversial path; volunteers sought for bike path committee

By NATHAN LAMB | Milton Independent Staff Writer
miltonreporter@yahoo.com

By most accounts, the concept of a recreation path in Milton enjoys widespread support, but that discussion becomes more complicated when specific routes come into play.

Disagreement about potential bike routes—and concerns from potential neighbors about privacy and crime—were heard most recently at a public forum in September.

Now the Selectboard is looking to address those issues through formation of an advisory recreation path committee, said board Chairman James Manley.

While he acknowledged that location has been a somewhat controversial issue to date, Manley’s sense was that the board is approaching this with an open mind and wants to get a variety of viewpoints involved to chart the best way forward.

“I think at the end of the day most people will agree that the concept is good, then we just have to figure where exactly we’d put it,” he said.

“If we have a difference of opinion about where they (the trails) should be, that’s not a bad thing,” he said at another point. “The bad thing would be doing nothing when a lot of people, myself included, feel we should have done something a while ago.”

The Selectboard is seeking seven to nine volunteers for the group, which will advise the town about the need for recreation paths, possible locations, and funding mechanisms. It’s also to get the public involved and solicit feedback, added town planning director Regina Mahoney, “The point of these commissions is to get a broad and representative view of people in the community,” she said. “…It’s often difficult to get people to serve on these committees, so the main criteria would be someone who is enthusiastic about it…who will make the commitment to show up at the meetings.”

There are some specific membership guidelines involved, though. The group is to include one representative from both the Recreation and Conservation Commissions, and three to five members who are legally qualified voters from town.

The board also has the option of appointing a member in grades 7-12 from Milton High School and one member who is a non-resident who owns property in the town of Milton.

Though no applications for appointment to the group have been received at the Selectboard office, at least one avowed bike path booster is ready to apply.

That would be Colchester-based attorney Rick Sharp, who was an integral part of launching the Burlington bike path in the early ’80s. Sharp has owned property on Cobble Hill for over 20 years, and would like to see a network of local trails established that would connect the I-89 park-and-ride, municipal offices, Cobble Hill, and perhaps trails across the town line in Colchester.

Sharp has already been working with a citizen’s group of Colchester and Milton residents who share that vision. The group mailed a conceptual map outlining the idea to a number of Milton residents earlier in the year.

That document, which showed a spur of the bike path connecting with Route 7 near Andrea Lane, drove most of the discussion at the September forum, where a number of neighbors voiced safety and privacy concerns about having the path near their homes.

Sharp said he’s carried on discussions with the neighbors since then, and he’s hoping to continue that work with the ad hoc group. Since coming onboard with this cause a year ago, he’s also appeared before the Selectboard on at least one occasion calling for more active town support of the project.

Recreation paths don’t happen overnight, Sharp explained. It was more than two years before substantial progress was seen with the Burlington path. At this point, he said, Milton figures to be on a slower track than that, due both to local inaction and a track record of the town under-investing in recreational assets.

However, Sharp said formation of the ad hoc group was a good starting point.

“I think the town is moving in exactly the right direction,” he said. “I’d like to see them move with more speed.”

Appointments to the group are expected to take place when at least five applications have been received at the Selectboard office, said town manager administrative assistant Dencie Mitchell.