Attendance

NAME	REPRESENTING	TELEPHONE NUMBER	E-MAIL ADDRESS
Donald Odell	Friends of MHBHT	482-4574	dodell@nycap.rr.com
John Stangle	Village of Menands		johnstangle@hotmail.com
Elaine Troy	NYS Dept. of Health	271-2760	eht01@health.state.ny.us
Arden Rauch	Environmental Clearinghouse of Schenectady (ECOS)	372-2932	raucha@union.edu
Pat Rush	ECOS & Friends of MHBHT	374-6995	c.c.rushassociates@verizon.net
Ivan Vamos	New York Bicycling Coalition	459-2026	ivanvamos@hotmail.com
Kathy Quandt	Albany County Convention & Visitors Bureau	434-1217 x213	Kathy@albany.org
Nancy Davis	Hudson River Valley Greenway	402-5894	Nancy.Davis@hudsongreenway.state.ny.us
John DiMura	NYS Canal Corp	436-3034	John_Dimura@canals.state.ny.us

1. Approval of the previous meeting review. The review of the December 8 meeting was approved as corrected. (Additions are underlined, deletions are struck through.)

Under 3 (Future Projects/Work Plan for 2003), Issues and Opportunities, the 4^th bullet was corrected into two bullets to read as follows:

· Establish link to Hudson River Natural Resources

· ~~Drainage~~ Damage Assessment Project

Two bullets were asterisked as priorities. They were:

· Coordination with studies/projects in the region.

· Adopt-A-Trail (Establish Volunteer Groups)

2. CTANY (Canal Trailways Association of New York) Update—John DiMura

q CTANY is working on the Local planning Management Guidelines.

q CTANY is updating the maintenance and design guidelines

3. Regional Updates

q John Stangle. The Village met with Albany County and the CDTC to review the maps and project status of the Connections project.

q Don Odell. A brief report was given at the last CDTC Bicycle & Pedestrian Task Force on the Connections project. Attendees were unable to view maps pending presentation to the participating municipalities.

q Elaine Troy.

No announcements have been made regarding NYS Health Department Healthy Heart grants.
A not-for-profit organization, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is offering 25 grants nationwide in the $75,000-80,000 range. The focus will be on connections and coordination with other entities and weighted towards health concerns. For details go to www.RJW.org and click Active Living by Design.

q Patricia Rush. ECOS is close to a final draft of a new edition of the Mohawk Hudson Bike Hike Trail covering from the Niskayuna/Colonie town line west to Rotterdam Junction. This has been a thorough review and update.

q Nancy Davis. The HRVC has issued two letters seeking bids for studies of economic revitalization. One is the 112^th St. Lansingburg corridor. The other is the Route 20 corridor in the City of Rensselaer.

q Kathy Quandt. In October and November there will be an exhibit of and lecture on the old Erie Canal Lock 1 at the Albany Visitors Center. There will be a tour on Saturday, November 8 at the location (the vicinity of the Modern Press Co. Kathy suggested that we hold our meeting at the Visitors Center during this time. It will be a chance to give us some publicity.

q John DiMura.

Several Canalway projects are underway: Fort Hunter to Canajoharie, Fort Plan to Minden. The two projects will result in a continuous trail across Montgomery County aside from a four-mile gap at the Schenectady-Montgomery County end, and a two mile gap at the Herkimer County end. The Minden to German Flatts project, which is slated for construction in 2003-2004, will complete the trail through western Montgomery County and extend into eastern Herkimer County. There are also projects under construction in Monroe and Orleans Counties. The 2004 construction schedule is being firmed up, and will be covered in the next issue of the Canalway Trail Times.

4. Saratoga County Champlain Canal Issue

q Copies of a petition were distributed. This petition comes from the New York Parks and Conservation Association (NYPCA) and seeks to convince the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors to rescind it resolution to sell the County-owned portions of the Champlain Canalway to abutting landowners. All were encouraged to circulate the petitions and get them back to David-Iman Adler of the NYPCA as soon as possible. Saratoga County is selling the land at $12,000 an acre. Much of the land is wetlands and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The U.S. Park Service has first refusal. The County apparently obtained the land from a development corporation in the 1940s. John noted that the City of Mechanicville owns the Waterford-Mechanicville portion. The stretch from Stillwater to Schuylerville is the portion owned by the County.

5. Montgomery County Snowmobiling

q Pat Rush introduced this subject by noting that the Friends of the MHHBT has raised concerns about snowmobiles being allowed on the Eire Canalway trail in Montgomery County. Howard Halstead submitted an opinion opposing this to the local newspapers, which has subsequently been published.

q This led to some discussion on the issue of snowmobile and ATV use on bike/hike trails. It was noted that the NYS Office of Parks & Recreation in the past has not objected to the counties allowing snowmobiles. In Onondaga County, snowmobiles were allowed on the old Erie Canal Trail provided a minimum of 6 inches of snow was on the trail. Apparently ATVs are not permitted. Montgomery County has had full responsibility for the management of the trail in accordance with an agreement executed with NYSOPR some years ago. At some point, this agreement will be up for renewal. John noted that the Canal Recreationway Plan of 1995 recommends that “trail use policies should allow for flexibility and inherent differences between urban, suburban and rural areas, i.e., hiking and biking are most lokely appropriate in all areas, while equestrian and snowmobile uses may only be appropriate in some suburban and rural areas.” However, in the end, it is up to the manager/owner of the trail segment to set use policies.

6. Review Work Plan and Begin Implementing.

q The outline started at the previous meeting, and corrected at this meeting was reviewed. Discussions continued. (Rather than repeat this outline in each meeting review, it is being included with this meeting review as a separate document. It will be revised and circulated as necessary in the future.)

q The focus was on Adopt-A-Trail. John distributed copies of the Canalway’s “Welcome to Adopt-a-Trail Program.”

q In an attempt to develop a project, the discussion led to undertaking a pilot project in the City of Schenectady. The trail in the city is the section in most need. However, in subsequent discussion, there was some emphasis about undertaking a doable project. So, the discussion moved to the section of the trail from Schenectady County Community College (SCCC) to Lock 8. Pat Rush volunteered to talk to Howard Halstead and then to Jeff Edwards in Schenectady County Planning about this as a pilot project.

It was noted that Union College Civil Engineering students have cleaned up Lock 23 in the past, but that the Civil Engineering program is being phased out. There will be no civil engineering students from Union to do this in the future. There is, so far, no replacement entity for this effort.
The priority in a pilot project might be the three-mile stretch from Schenectady Community College to Lock 8, with the first mile being the priority. It was noted that much of the littering comes from the adjacent interstate highway system.
The Canalway’s adopt-a-trail publication recommends monthly cleanups over the season, approximately eight times a year. In discussion, it was thought that there be a big pick up in the spring, with smaller groups doing monthly pick-ups.
There are a couple of running and cyclists clubs in Schenectady County that might be helpful.
Schenectady County has groups that do plantings/landscaping. Could they be of some help? Cooperation Extension has a master gardeners program that requires a certain number of hours of work to qualify.
John noted that the Canalway does landscaping at the locks, but only there.

7. Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for 3:00-5:00 PM, Monday, February 24, 2003 at the Capital District Transportation Committee, 5 Computer Drive East, Colonie.

SUBMITTED BY:

Don Odell, recorder