COCHITUATE RAIL TRAIL TASK FORCE
MINUTES OF MEETING
APRIL 18, 2007
Members present: John Griffith, Karla Sangrey, Dave Camacho, Josh Ostroff, Dick Miller
John Gelchinsky, John Moran
Alternate Members present: Peter Henry, John Adelmann
Advisors/visitors present: Russell Brown
Chair Josh Ostroff called the meeting to order at 7:05
1) Meeting Minutes for 2/21 and 3/21
On a motion by Peter and seconded by Dave, and agreed by all, the minutes for 2/21 were
approved. Edits to the minutes for 3/21 were made by the Framingham group and need to be
reviewed. Approval of minutes for 3/21 has been tabled for now.
2) CSX negotiation status
The Town has closed on negotiations for the 11 Mechanic Street parcel. The Town of Natick
will own the property. Interstate Paving will continue in a month to month lease. Natick’s
Conservation Commission will own the land so we will need to work in conjunction with them
for RFP for future use. Part of the site may be excavated for drainage.
CSX has an appraisal out but we don’t know what it is yet. We are asking for the
Commonwealth’s help with dealing with CSX for the best possible price. Governor Patrick has
announced the intention to add commuter rail service to Fall River and New Bedford. Therefore,
there could be an opportunity to bundle Natick’s negotiations with CSX with the extension of
commuter rail service to Southeastern Massachusetts. We don’t know the status of Holliston’s
efforts to engage a third party appraiser/arbitrator in their negotiations with CSX.
3) Town Meeting Update
Due to election issues, Town Meeting has been delayed to May 29th. There will be a warrant
article to explore conceptual design issues. It would be great to have the choice of surface as
part of a conceptual design but we don’t have that luxury. The earliest Josh sees us starting the
process is June.
4) Rails and Ties removal planning
CSX plans to remove the ties and rails from the ROW. The good news is that CSX has agreed to
come before the Conservation Commission to present their plan and work out environmental
issues. A site visit is planned for 5/17. One concern is that if the rails/ties are removed, nothing
would be holding the ballast together, potentially allowing erosion to occur. Josh has spoken to a
supervisor at the Highway and Sanitation Department about whether ballast not destined for a
rail trail can be used by the town.
Dick mentioned that CSX removed the rails crossing Speen Street to the old Wonder Bread
facility. He also commented how members of the Framingham committee recently discovered in
one area that only sharp ballast was left behind, leaving a trail that was not passable for people
and dogs.
John asked about how we will make our recommendation about whether or not to purchase the
ROW from CSX? Will it be our task force? Will it be the Conservation Commission? Josh said
that any recommendation will come from our task force.
Dick expressed some concerns. 1) We only looked at environmental cleanliness around one
location—11 Mechanic Street—we don’t know about others. He is guessing that it will be o.k.
because of limited rail traffic or bad spills along the tracks. 2) We don’t know what the costs of
removal are. A local example of “good nonpaving” is most of the northern half of the CRT.
Ballast was taken when the rails removed. Also, there are unpaved carriage roads at the Elm
Bank Reservation.
5) Abutter Outreach
Josh found a contact at Natick Labs who distribute utilize the web-based survey that we have
available. There are 1300 people at the Natick Labs and the goal is to ask key questions such as
who is likely to use the CRT and how often. Also, it is important to gauge the degree of interest
for volunteers. The survey may be replicated with other major abutting businesses.
By mid-May we should have everything we need for a consolidated abutter report. We are not
requiring business abutters to fill out a survey but we have a general script available.
Russell Brown, direct abutter to Paperboard property, spoke to the task force. Through his own
experiences and research he has determined that there are significant levels of contamination on
the Paperboard property.
Josh felt that at this point it would be prudent for Bob Bois, Natick’s Conservation Agent and
Environmental Compliance Officer, to become involved, and that he would follow up with Bob.
6) Safety and security planning
If the rails and ties are removed, it may be seen as an invitation for people to trespass on the
ROW. Josh will recommend to the Board of Selectmen that they ask the Safety Committee to
form an opinion. The Safety Committee is a town committee including the Police Chief. The
Chief chairs the group and there are representatives from the community—the school committee,
seniors, etc. A member of the task force will work with the Safety Committee.
We hope to make this an agenda item for the next Safety Committee meeting. Dick wants to
make sure that we take work of Framingham into consideration. Josh will coordinate with that
committee.
7) Trail operation and maintenance cost estimates
Jon Gelchinsky volunteered to gather information detailing manpower and general expenditures
for maintaining rail trails. Three questions to be asked are: 1) How much money in total do you
spend annually? 2) How much money was privately raised 3) Added to a phone book. [???]
8) Community newsletter
Karen has volunteered to compile a newsletter and is targeting late May or early June for
publishing of the first issue. She is asking people to send her ideas. Dick asked about having it
ready before Town meeting but Josh believed late May or early June is more realistic.
9) Multiuse path at Natick Mall
Members of the Framingham CRT committee asked for our help at our last meeting. There is a
new trail under construction around the Natick Mall expansion. Ostensibly it is a multi use trail
but the spacing is very tight around the corners—and the trail itself is reportedly only six feet
wide. There will be a site visit on Monday afternoon (4/23) at 3:30 in Parking lot F, in the
southwest corner of the new garage. Dick and Josh will be there as well.
10) May/June meeting dates
It was proposed to hold meetings on Tuesday, May 15th and Wednesday, June 6th.
11) Other business
To help celebrate BikeWeek, the NBPAC is planning to go before the Board of Selectmen to win
approval to sponsor tours of the ROW. Framingham has worked with CSX to eliminate liability
issues.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:45 PM.
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