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PLAN OF CONSERVATION & DEVELOPMENT IMPLEMENTATION COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING

Minutes

Monday, June 17, 2019 7:00 pm

Waverly Center (Senior Center), 7 Waverly Avenue, Portland, CT

 

Present: Fred Knous, Chairman; Claire Frisbie, Angela Hammond, Thomas Malecky (alternate), Frank Winiski (alternate)

Absent: Sharon Peters, Wayne Martin

 

  1. Call to order by Chairman, Fred Knous, at 6:58 p.m.

 

  1. Seating of alternates – Frank Winiski and Thomas Malecky seated alternates.

 

  1. Approval of minutes – Motion to approve minutes of May 20, 2019 meeting by Thomas Malecky, seconded. Discussion – no corrections or additions. Vote to approve minutes – motion approved.

 

  1. Discussion with POCD Partners and Leaders – Report from Rosario Rizzo, chair of Portland Air Line Trail Committee. Committee has 7 original members and 2 alternates. Meets last Monday of month exc. Dec, at 6:30 pm at Library.

 

E.1. – Establish Air Line Trail; Extend to Town Center; Connect to East Hampton, Middletown, Glastonbury.

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Phase 1 - Trail completed and opened – June 2018 – 2.3-mile segment from Depot Hill Rd in East Hampton – Portland line at viaduct (Posted 0.0) – to YMCA and Butler Construction boundary. Keegan Hill property on Middle Haddam Rd was purchased and a parking lot/trail head was established. Trail being used heavily; police are patrolling to discourage ATV and motorbikes. Success of this piece encourages owners of potential trail extension areas. Added street signs and safety signage at roadways. Other actions taken to promote safety (e.g. falling rocks).

Connect to East Hampton – done and East Hampton has completed most of the segment from downtown to the Portland line. Just one wetland area to be addressed by building a board walk soon.

Complete Streets Group established as subcommittee with Kathy Herron, chair. See previous report of that group.

Business – Economic Development – considering ways to encourage trail users to patronize local businesses. Creating App with downloadable map from QR code to be at kiosks to help locate businesses for visitors. Posted town maps at kiosks for the time being. Mr. Rizzo is also consultant to Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce and updates this group as to progress of the trail and business connections. CSG has posted signage for several bike trails through the town.

 

Phase 2 – from YMCA to Williams Street Extension. Proposal to DEEP to spend remaining $70,000 of original grant monies on proposal for this phase and doubling parking area at Keegan (due to heavy use.) Approved by DEEP. Town DPW has agreed to provide labor for Keegan job and Committee will fund materials. Discussions with landowners of this segment have been encouraging and much of this segment has been figured out. Negotiations and details still being worked out. Considering Bike Repair station at Keegan trail head. State has a 50 ft. right of way on Rt 66. They have discussed that this could be used to place trail in places where old rail bed not available.

 

Phase 3 – continuing from Williams Street Ext. to Arrigoni Bridge. Potentially a 10-year timeline. Problems include multiple landowners, and structures constructed in old rail bed. Presently 2 CCSU engineering students researching landowners and original railbed route as their senior project. Discussions are ongoing with various landowners. Committee has toured and conferred with state on old RR depot. State will give right of entry for ATC use when ready. (State has committed to keep the RR bridge to Middletown open 20 years.) Town building official reviewed building for stability.

Connect to Middletown – Committee went to Middletown Citizens Meeting and spoke in support of the Middletown trail to go to Arrigoni Bridge. Potential for a 110-mile loop when Portland and Middletown can meet at Arrigoni Bridge and complete their trails.

Connect to Glastonbury – Committee has hiked and spoken with landowners regarding the route along the river from Exchange Club fairgrounds to Ferry landing in South Glastonbury. There may be similar route along Portland’s riverfront from Riverfront Park to fairgrounds. Considerations and discussions with landowners ongoing.

 

  1. Website discussion – Regarding the decision to use website style similar to Wilton to collect, disseminate, track and review POCDI information – there are no funds to create this website. Town instead will allow something posted on the Town website. This needs to be discussed with the Town Tech dept. Discussion followed regarding the Implementation table/spread sheet timeline column addition and the potential to link reports from Commissions/Groups regarding progress.

Tom Malecky reported on his discussion with Wilton Town Planner – they have Joint Working Group of stake holders that meets every 6 months, but do not appear to actually update their Implementation plan. They do not send out questionnaires to update plan as we previously thought. (Questionnaires were used in the update process to create their new plan.) With their most recent plan, they switched consulting firms and feel their plan went from a very general plan with everything in it to a more specific and functional plan.

 

  1. Review 2016-2026 Plan of Conservation and Development – Discussed need to have mechanism to know what information we have, what has been done, and what still needs to be addressed in the POCD.

Reviewed letter written by Tom Malecky to be sent to Leaders & Partners. Discussed purpose of letter – to help participants in POCDI recognize their responsibility to provide reports of where they stand on assigned tasks, to provide information to others regarding the actions of this committee and our need for information regarding other groups actions on the POCD Implementation. Suggestion to create a news release/publicity to give townspeople this information on what we are doing. This has to wait until we actually have a vehicle to track progress and distribute background information. Is there a way to see if any towns are doing Implementation tracking and how they are doing this?

Task list

Tom Malecky invited group members to edit letter before next meeting.

Fred Knous asked that members review POCDI and reports received to date over the summer and be prepared to discuss next steps and invitations to stake holders needed.

Fred Knous has contacted previous clerk (he is not available) and will continue to bring to Town our concerns regarding ongoing need for clerk for this Committee.

Fred Knous to set up meeting with Town Tech for Tom Malecky and Claire Frisbie.

 

  1. Public comment – none.

  2. Motion to adjourn approved – adjourned by Chair Knous at 9:19 p.m.

Next meeting will be Monday, September 16, 2019, 7 p.m. Place to be notified. Submitted by,

Claire Frisbie

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