The Select Board at its meeting Tuesday night voted to disband the Upper Charles Trail Committee, ending nearly two years of division over whether it should be dissolved or become a subcommittee of the Trails Committee.
In a surprise move, chair Brian Herr said the Trails Committee (also referred to as the Trails Coordination and Management Committee or TCMC during the meeting) likewise should be dissolved. This would give the Select Board the ability to create a new trails committee and “start over.”
Because the Trails Committee still has active projects, the board determined that it should not be dissolved until after the structure of the new committee is outlined. This task was given to Town Manager Elaine Lazarus, who will present it at the next meeting on Oct. 1.
Lazarus explained that Town Meeting in May 2023 voted for a nonbinding article to disband the UCTC and allow it to become a TCMC subcommittee. Its activities were suspended then, with the exception of meeting to discuss a new charge and charter.
“Through a series of discussions, it decided to ask the Upper Charles Trail Committee to meet and come up with recommendations as to how it might revise its charge to address the needs of the community,” she said. She added that the TCMC also provided its own revised charge for the UCTC.
UCTC chair Jane Moran and several committee members attended the meeting to speak to the work the committee has accomplished since it was created in 2012. Moran made the case that the two groups should be kept as separate entities, as the previous Select Board had decided. She also presented the UCTC’s revised charge, which the committee has worked on for the past several months.
UCTC chair Jane Moran advocates before the Select Board to keep the UCTC separate from the Trails Committee.
Moran explained that the UCTC was created as part of a five-town effort to form a multipurpose trail that would link the communities “into a 28-mile loop.” She said this trail would “provide safe access for our residents of all abilities” to the schools, the downtown area, Hopkinton State Park and the town’s historical assets.
While the current Trails Committee’s focus is on creating a network of trails in town, the mission of the UCTC is “starkly different,” Moran said. By contrast, the UCTC has been actively working with other towns and won multiple state grants over the past decade. It also was awarded money from the Community Preservation Committee at the May 2022 Town Meeting, which has been held in abeyance because of the UCTC’s suspension.
Moran presented an 11-page document outlining the UCTC’s accomplishments over its history, which included property allocations, studies of possible trail sites, potential easements and meetings with stakeholders. It also contained a “conceptual plan” that previously generated controversy because of its multiple crossings of Hayden Rowe Street. She explained that the plan had to be drawn in order to apply for funding and was “not set in stone.”
The revised charge addressed issues raised by the community during the 2023 Town Meeting. It stressed clearer communication, more community outreach “to regain the public trust,” and a more efficient meeting and committee structure, according to Moran.
The Center Trail would be a key aspect included in the proposed Upper Charles trail. Before the suspension, the UCTC also worked on refining a plan that would connect Hopkinton State Park to the downtown area.
Moran said the UCTC decided it didn’t want to become a TCMC subcommittee because “we would be doing all the work and yet have essentially no vote in the final outcome.”
Alternate UCTC member Jamie Wronka noted that the UCTC stresses “accessibility for all ages and all abilities,” an element that the Trails Committee does not.
Linda Chuss, the secretary of the Trails Committee, said she did not agree with Moran’s characterization of that group. She said it views the Trails Committee “as being responsible for all trails in town.”
UCTC vice chair Eric Sonnett said there was initial enthusiasm for building the trail when the committee was created. But it became a complicated process because the town failed to purchase all of the old rail beds that would have facilitated its construction. When Hayden Rowe residents learned that one trail option would go in front of their homes, the “public outcry” against it began.
He added that the Town Meeting vote against the UCTC was taken at 11 p.m., when most people had left.
Member Amy Ritterbusch initially supported the groups remaining separate, as did member Mary Jo LaFreniere. But because several UCTC members’ terms were expiring in June 2025, Ritterbusch said it would be a good time to “start fresh.”
Added LaFreniere: “If we’re going to combine them, everything has to be rewritten from the get-go.”
“I just see a lot of synergies between these two committees,” said member Joe Clark, who recommended that they be combined.
Member Shahidul Mannan focused on the “logjam” that has existed because of this controversy. He agreed with Clark that it may be “more productive” to “bring them under the same umbrella.”
Herr noted that he was on the Select Board when the UCTC was created. He said since then, “organizational behaviors” have gotten in the way of progress.
Disbanding both committees would allow members to apply to the new iteration of a trails committee, he continued, noting it would include all of the UCTC’s prior work.
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