May 20 meeting minutes Friends of the Northern Rail Trail in Merrimack County

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Franklin Regional Hospital Conference 7:00 p.m.

FNRT Board Members Present: Steve Darling, Tom Frantz, Craig Heim, Charles Martin, Joyce Morton, Ellsworth Morton, Steve Rayno, Peter Southworth, Nita Tomaszewski, Bob Ward, and guests Chuck North (Franklin), Cheryl Tedford, and Iris Ianno (Tilton).

Agenda

1. Approval of April 15, 2015 minutes. Passed.
    
2. Treasurer’s Report. Steve reported income from the April & May membership drive was over $5000.
    
3. Correspondence. Steve shared some correspondence on the Dyers Crossing engineering work. Charles shared the news that other trails are moving toward securing a ‘user count’ in their hopes for some economic data and analysis. Hearing support for exploring this, Charles will look into the costs and technology.
    
4. Old Business
    
   1. Maintenance (Peter) Steve submitted receipts for painting & sandblasting graffiti ($75) as well as some trail clearing ($80 gas and oil expenses). Reimbursement for these expenses were approved. Alex and Steve recommend trail work clearing brush and RR ties around a proposed kiosk location by the East Andover Fire Dept. ($1800). Discussion around this recommendation questioned if that is a good location for a kiosk (is there parking nearby?). It was voted to carry this discussion and vote until next months meeting. Steve proposed retrenching the drainage ($600) south of Carr St. across from Chance Pond. There was a request for maps or photographs, and discussion and voting on this action was also carried. Craig wondered about a system to report bigger maintenance projects to a member of the maintenance committee who will then bring it to the board with necessary information in preparation for discussion and voting.
       
   2. Technology report. (Steve Darling) Reported that each set of meeting minutes will be accessible on the home page of our website.
       
   3. Map with hotels and restaurants (Steve R.) carried. Steve worked with Leigh Webb to identify about five sites for interpretive/historical photographs in Franklin, to be installed by Trails Day. Approval for this project was received from Trails Bureau.
       
   4. Kiosks at 2 Welcome Centers. (Ellsworth) Carried. Bob observed that we need a larger, coordinated plan for kiosks before deciding where we install kiosks.
       
   5. Report on Boscawen signage (Alex) Carried.
       
   6. National Trails Day (June 6) exhibition opening with Andover Historical Society. We will support the event by advertising this event to the FNRT database.   Schedule of meetings rotating in Trail towns (Alex) Carry to June.
       
   7. Action Items (All)
       
5. New Business
    
   1. Upcoming meetings and events:  July 4 plans-proposal to share our space with Special Olympics Rail Trail event on the green. Peter will pursue this with Pecco to see if your interests conflict.
       
   2. Bob is looking for the location of the new, smaller sized FNRT Trail Map.
       
   3. Bob raised his concerns over the very high, annual maintenance cost estimates from Trails Bureau and if we can create a sustainable, long term solution with no help from Trails Bureau. Bob wants to prepare to ask Merrimack County Commissioners for their support. There was discussion about snowmobile clubs, collecting trail use data, and determining our annual maintenance costs before proceeding with any action. We heard from our guests about the Winnie Trail issues and budget.
       
   4. June 17 Meeting – Boscawen (specific location TBD).

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00pm.

Respectfully Submitted,
Peter Southworth, Recording Secretary