Danvers gets state grant to finish rail trail

[J Godsey]

SalemNews.com, Salem, MA

June 1, 2013

Danvers gets state grant to finish rail trail

BY ETHAN FORMAN 
STAFF WRITER

---- — DANVERS — The soon-to-be completed Danvers Rail Trail served as the backdrop yesterday as the state commissioner of Conservation and Recreation announced $900,000 worth of grants for 27 trail projects — including $50,000 for Danvers and Wenham.

That $50,000 will be used to finish the trail in both towns, adding a stone dust surface that will make it easier for people on bicycles or in wheelchairs to use the trail. The surface now is rocky and bumpy.

The 5.2-mile rail trail, built on the site of abandoned railroad beds, stretches from Peabody to Topsfield, but most of it is in Danvers. Danvers and Wenham will have to come up with a 20 percent match to the grant.

When the surface is completed later this summer, it will link to a trail in Topsfield, forming a finished, 7.6-mile leg of the proposed 28-mile Border-To-Boston Trail.

“This is a very important program for us,” said DCR Commissioner Edward Lambert Jr., “because we believe the investments the state and local communities make in trails are about connections. They are about connecting great properties, they are about connecting people to nature and natural resources, but they are also about connecting people to people.”

Lambert said Danvers was a great place to highlight the trail grants statewide, “because this community has been very committed to these forms of projects. ... It’s a pleasure to give grants to folks who know how to use the money.’”

Wenham Town Administrator Mark Andrews and Danvers Town Manager Wayne Marquis accepted the grant. Marquis singled out Charles Lincicum, chairman of the Rail Trail Advisory Committee, and thanked members of the committee and Town Hall staff, including Senior Planner Kate Day.

Yesterday’s presentation took place on a stage set along the rail trail, with an audience of about 40 people, including representatives from trail projects across the state, sitting under a shady tree on a patio at the Cherry Street Fish Market. It’s a patio that was built by the owner of the fish market, Darryl Parker, because of the rail trail’s construction.

After the speeches, workers for the Nevada-based nonprofit Iron Horse Preservation Society, which converts abandoned railroads to functioning rail trails, used some heavy equipment to roll out a stone dust surface on a section of the trail on Hobart Street to demonstrate what it will be like. Iron Horse built the rail trail in exchange for salvaging the scrap rails.

While there have been many milestones in the trail’s construction, including a dedication ceremony last year, the capstone of the project will be a smooth surface that will make it easier going for bikes.

At first, neighbors were concerned about security and safety of a rail trail near where they live, Lincicum said.

“Now what we hear a lot is: ‘Why isn’t it paved yet? “ Lincicum said. The trail averages 400 to 500 people a day, with 80 percent of that traffic due to bike riders.

Selectman Dan Bennett remarked that he and Selectman Bill Clark both once served on a bike path committee in 1998, back when such an idea was not popular. Six years ago, when Bennett joined the board, the town signed a long-term lease with the MBTA to make the rail trail possible. Countless volunteer hours followed, he said.

“This is just terrific for residents to have a rail trail going through your community,” said state Sen. Joan Lovely of Salem. The mother of three children also tends to three baby ducks, she said, which brings her to the Danvers Agway store on Wenham Street for food. There, she often notices the families and other people who use the trail.

State Sen. Bruce Tarr of Gloucester lauded the local effort that created the Danvers Rail Trail.

“These things happen from the ground up,” he said. “They don’t come from the dictates of Beacon Hill.”

Trails help bring people together from across a region and improve residents quality of life, Tarr said. He singled out an $8,000 trails grant to the Bagnall School in Groveland to improve trails of the Groveland Town Forest.

Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673, by email at efo...@salemnews.com or on Twitter at @DanverSalemNews.