Attendance

NAME	ADDRESS	TELEPHONE NUMBER	E-MAIL ADDRESS
Denise Farnan	19 Roosevelt Dr. Saratoga Springs, NY 12866	584-2000 X 205	Denise.Farnan@OPRHP.state.ny.us
Andy Labruzzo	Albany County 112 State St., Room 1006 Albany, NY 12207	447-5645	alabruzzo@albanycounty.com
Dick Hurst	One Tug Boat Alley Watervliet, NY 12188	527-5041	WFDCAHANUC@aol.com
Howard Halstead	141 Willow Creek Ave. Schenectady, NY 12304	393-0558	halstead@ieee.org
Donald Odell	97 Manning Blvd., Apt A Albany, NY 12203	48304574	dodell@nycap.rr.com
Donald Robertson	NYSDOT – Region 1 84 Holland Ave. Albany, NY 12208	474-6219	drobertson@gw.dot.state.ny.us
Elaine Troy	NYSDOH, Frear Building, 4^th Floor, 2 Third St., Troy, NY 12189	271-2760 X 763	ehtoi@health.state.ny.us
Ivan Vamos	13 Maple Lane Loudonville, NY 12211	459-2026	ivanvamos@hotmail.com
John Dimura	NYS Canal Corp	436-3034	john_Dimura@canals.state.us.ny

1. Updates

q Don Robertson:

New Regional Bike-Hike map distributed. Comments follow:

§ It would help to have the maps at the largest feasible size with the text taking less space (and maybe smaller print).

§ The continuity of the Mohawk Hudson Bike Hike Trail should receive more prominence.

He is not sure when the Watervliet trailhead parking lot improvements and signage is scheduled. Andy noted that he understands that there is some discussion involving Albany County and the future maintenance of the lot. At this point, it appears to be unclear as to who is the responsible party for maintenance.
Don noted that there was to be a meeting tomorrow evening (4/2) on a section of the Champlain trail, with the contact being Joanne Winchell of Stillwater.
The CDTC Mohawk-Hudson Bikeway Tail Maintenance map was distributed.
This is the last enhancement round under TEA-21. The future is dependent upon Congressional action.

q Dick Hurst noted that the Mechanicville-Halfmoon Trail has been ranked 7^th on the CDTC priority list of the TEA-21 Enhancement round. He request that appropriate parties be contacted stressing the importance of this project in the regional trail context.

q Andy Labruzzo reported that the request for proposals for the CDTC-Albany County Mohawk Hudson Regional Bike-Hike Tail Crossroad Connection Study went out a couple of weeks previously, and that the RFPs were due at the CDTC by April 18. They hope to have a consultant in place by mid-June, with the project taking about 6-10 months to complete.

q John Dimura noted that:

The World Canals Conference will be in Montreal in September 2002.
The New York State Canal Conference will be in Utica in June 2003.
The 2002 Cycle the Erie Canal tour will take place July 7-14, 2002. If you are interested in volunteering, see Howard Halstead (www.nypca.org/canaltour).

q Elaine Troy reported:

The Healthy Heart ride ends on July 29.
There will be a Mother’s Day meander featuring a one-hour walk around the lake in Washington Park. (Check with www.nysphysicalactivity.org.)

q Howard Halstead reported:

There will be a clean up on a one mile portion of the Mohawk Hudson bike path in Schenectady city June 1, a National Trail Day event.
There is some concern about the future application of the plans set forth in the Edwards and Kelsey report prepared for the city with financial assistance being provided through the CDTC. This led to some discussion about how to address this concern, with no definitive ideas being set forth.

q John Dimura noted that there will be a presentation on the Canalway Trail by Lou Rossi at the Changing Spaces gallery in Albany. A date for the presentation has not been set.

q There was some discussion about bicycle recycling, rentals, etc., in the Capital Region. It might be worth checking with the cities in the region about availability.

2. Comments/revisions to minutes from the last meeting.

None were noted.

3. Overview of March Canalway Trails Association Board Meeting.

John reported on his efforts to continue to work with existing regional groups, and the establishment of regional groups where they are needed.

4. Trail Management Association

There was some discussion about how to proceed with this item. The Albany County/CDTC study is just getting started, and one of the elements is to study trail management options. This will include a public outreach process. It was noted that this study is limited to the Albany County part of the trail. There needs to be a regional approach that includes Schenectady County and its municipalities. It appears that the Regional Canalway Group should keep itself closely informed as to the progress on the Albany County/CDTC study, and proceed from there.

5. Adopt-a-Trail Opportunities

June 1^st is Trail Cleanup Day. There was discussion about the need to clean up the section immediately north of the Corning Preserve. The trail is very close to the highway at this point. Most of the trash is probably within the highway right-of-way over the fence from the trail. Don Robertson was asked to check on NYSDOT’s approach, policies, rules, etc. to clean up in this location where the trash is likely to be in the right-of-way.* Andy will check on the policy/need of permissions on the county portion. John will check in with Monique Wahba about the city’s portion. There was some discussion about handling publicity. It was noted that the Schenectady County chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club has a mid-May newsletter. Also, there was some discussion of posters at the trailheads.

6. Outreach Plan.

There was a brief discussion on developing a flier or brochure to promote the trail and stewardship by users. (It was nearly 3:50 when we got to this point on the agenda.)

q The following notes are from the newsprint recorded by John.

HOW TO FORMAT

1 page?

EDUCATIONAL/ADVOCACY

REGIONAL/STATEWIDE TRAIL

TARGET

USERS

BENEFITS

DEVELOP DISTRIBUTION PLAN

PLAN TO GET MORE PEOPLE ON THE TRAIL & REACH MORE PEOPLE ON TRAIL.

INN TO INN BROCHURE – UNDER DEVELOPMENT

q Discussion points were raised:

· Who is the intended market? The sense is that the market was not to be government officials, based on discussions at recent meetings. Instead the focus might be to get the trail users to get the attention of the governmental officials.

· Present users need to know: What can you do for your trail?

· The Town of Colonie has a monthly newsletter. School districts may have outreach materials that might include trail concerns.

The next meeting will be 1:00-3:00 PM, Monday, May 6, 2002. The meeting will be held at the Schenectady County Parks Department Building in Central Park. Agenda items will include continuing to work on the outreach plan and the adopt-a-trail.

SUBMITTED BY:

Don Odell, recorder

* Don reported at the CDTC Bicycle Pedestrian Task Force meeting on April 2^nd that the NYSDOT engineer for Rensselaer County (who has jurisdiction over the I-787 right-of-way) informed him that NYSDOT has no formal policy about people being in the right-of-way, but that it is not a good idea to have them there.