So, what’s new with the West River Trail lower section?  

Work Days are being scheduled!!! 

To volunteer to work on the trail, keep your eyes open for dates on our website:   http://www.westrivertrail.org.  Our plan is to begin working on the trail surface with donated surepack, start putting in kiosks, begin bridge work, and remove more trash and debris along the trail.

A lot has been going on behind the scenes, that is not visible as you play on the trail.  Here are some examples…

• Our dedicated fundraising committee put together an appeal recently, which you may have received.  We hope you can make a donation if you haven’t yet!

• We have been communicating with VTrans about trail use while the I-91 bridge is being rebuilt during 2014-2015, and trail improvement up to and under the bridges once the work is completed. .

• We have been working with the Brattleboro listers to get the WRT on the tax map and have requested a tax waiver as a non-profit public use property owner.

• We have been meeting property owners whose land abuts the WRT from the Nature Conservancy parking lot on Rice Farm Rd to the quarry to discuss the existence of  the West River Trail and future work on that section of trail.

• Chris Thomas of Pleasant Valley Yardworks has been keeping the trail along the west side of Rice Farm Rd mowed.

• Rachel Zamore has been volunteering her time to do a title search to uncover ownership of the West River Railroad bed from the quarry, where our deed ends, 10 miles to the north.

• A feasibility study was completed for a pedestrian bridge from the WRT to the West River Park.  Tom Brown volunteered his time and expertise to do this for us.

• Tom Brown also voluntarily completed a feasibility study for a rail with trail from the train station in downtown Brattleboro along the Connecticut River to the West River.

• Mike Cersosimo agreed to donate 2 loads of surepak (18 tons!) for trail surface improvement.  Thank you Mike!

• Dennis Smith will donate his backhoe and his time to help move the surepak to the trail, and has offered a place to unload it until it can be spread.

• We have chosen a design for kiosks at the Rice Farm Rd and Marina ends of the trail.

• Home Depot in Keene, NH has offered a 20% discount on materials for building kiosks and picnic tables.

• A new appraisal was done on the 20 acre parcel of land along the river, 1 mile north of the I-91 bridge, that we are looking to acquire.

• Eli Gould did a drawing for the bridge needed at mile 5, where the trail crosses a brook entering the river along Rice Farm Rd.  We hope to get the abutments in place (granite stones) before winter.

• New trail maps have been printed, distributed to various businesses and organizations around Brattleboro, and are available for download off the website!  Thank you Jeff Nugent for creating the maps!

• We’re updating and improving the website.  It will soon have capability for viewers to add comments and photos!

Notice:  If you are walking the trail with your dog, please clean up after it.  More trail users equals more dogs equals more waste on the trail.  Please be considerate of all trail users.  Thank you!

We welcome donations of money, materials, time and talent!  We are pushing to meet our fundraising goal of $35,000 in order to receive the Thompson Trust grant.  It is now easy to contribute on our website http://www.westrivertrail.org.  Please let us know if you have time and talent to give, for trail work, participation on a trail improvement task force, website updating, newsletter writing, title searching, fund and friendraising… other ideas, let us know!  There are many ways to contribute.  We look forward to seeing you on the trail!

Editor, Kathleen White