Selectmen Give Vote of Confidence for New Bike-Ped Corridor Strategy

The Salem bike-pedestrian corridor plan will see a change in scope, after a reallocation of funds was approved by Selectmen 4-0-1 on Monday.

The plan was first envisioned in 2003 as a way to create a non-motorized transportation path along the abandoned Boston to Maine railroad Manchester to Lawrence branch.

Grant funds have always been the backbone to financing the project, with $910,000 being awarded to Salem in 2010 from the Transportation Enhancements (TE) program.

Dave Topham, co-chair for the Friends of the Salem Bike-Ped Corridor, told Selectmen that his organization recently stepped back to seriously look at the project.

They wanted to determine how practical it would be to build the trail all the way up to northern Salem in the area of Walmart and Wendy's.

Topham presented the idea of just paving the sections of the trail worked on by the Iron Horse Preservation Society (IHPS).

The IHPS is a non-profit organization that works to rehabilitate and preserve railroads in communities. The group recieved approval from the New Hampshire governor and Executive Council to work in Salem in Aug. 2012.

The IHPS began work in Oct. 2012 on 2.8 miles of trail development. Members of the organization worked until December removing about 30 percent of the railroad ties before the ground froze.

According to Topham, the development includes three sections – from Old Rockingham Road down to as far as Willow Street, Cluff Crossing Road down to Kelly Road and Kelly Road to the Methuen, Mass. line.

With tie removal starting back up again, expectations are for that work to be completed by the end of July. Those ties are brought to a disposal facility in Maine.

On June 11, Topham joined Community Development Director Bill Scott and Windham Town Manager Dave Sullivan to meet with William Rose of the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.

The group discussed the change of scope, which would see the Salem section of the TE grant requiring $675,000. With a 25 percent match, the funding needed would be reduced from $227,500 to $168,750.

Built into the $675,000 is upwards of $116,000 for crossings at the major intersections.

A design study for the revised strategy would need to take place in the fall of 2013, with a warrant article appearing on the ballot in 2014 allowing Salem voters to commit one way or another to the grant.

If approved by voters and by the state, construction work would then take place in the fall of 2014.

Topham stressed that the project is non-taxpayer funds.

In fact, a recently formed steering committee for the bike-ped project headed up by Salem resident Larry Belair has been able to muster up much of the $168,750 themselves.

"I turned to some of Salem's business leaders – they are all charter members of the 'get it done' group here in Salem," Belair said.

Salem cooperative bank donated $25,000 to the project. The Arlington Pond Protective Association gave $10,000. The Salem Lions Club pitched in another $5,000. Ed Callahan and Rockingham Park gave $3,000. Other donors, including both organizations and individuals, delivered thousands more to fund the work.

With $95,000 in available funds for the Friends of the Salem Bike-Ped Corridor and $47,500 obtained by the steering committee, only $26,250 is still needed for Salem to reach the grant match.

"We will reach out goal," Belair told the board members. "We will have this trail paved as soon as the (state) agencies can get their ducks in order.

But Selectman Stephen Campbell, who abstained in the board's vote to support the new strategy, worried that there will be two sections of the trail that will not be connected.

"My concern – we end up with something that just dies" Campbell said. "It's like our sidewalks around town. We have sidewalks that go to nowhere. They don't hook up to other sidewalks. That's why the section (of the bike-ped corridor) up north makes sense, because even if it stopped with just that, it is connected to Windham, to Derry."

Chairman Everett McBride Jr. said that the northern section wouldn't get used, but that he does believe residents will exercise and utilize some of the other proposed pieces.

Board member Mike Lyons said that tackling the project is a risk worth taking, while fellow member Jim Keller pushed for more frequent updates, better communication and structure to the plan.

Selectman Pat Hargreaves also criticized the communication between Topham's organization and the board, saying that Selectmen took the brunt of criticisms and angry calls related to the ties sitting on the road.

Trail maintenance was also brought up by Campbell, but Topham argued that rail trails in all other towns do not burden their communities nor do the towns put money into them.

Future possibilities for the trail, which could also come through grants, include the section of Cluff Street up to Rockingham Park Boulevard and then past the racetrack up to Main Street. A pedestrian bridge, which Topham said would cost about $2 million, would likely be needed for that work to be done.

The Friends of the Salem Bike-Ped Corridor held their kickoff meeting on June 17. They will next meet on July 11 at Kelley Library. The group anticipates meeting monthly.