The former Center School at 11 Ash Street currently sits vacant, but there are discussions taking place about the future of the property across from the Town Common. On Tuesday night, Dan McIntyre, chair of the Permanent Building Committee, provided the Select Board...
Upper Charles Trail
UCTC votes to recommend no action on its trail funding requests at Town Meeting
The Upper Charles Trail Committee, at a special meeting Wednesday morning, voted unanimously to recommend that no action be taken on its Community Preservation Committee funding requests at the May 2 Annual Town Meeting. The committee had requested CPC funding...
Letter to the Editor: Upper Charles Trail will exist for generations — let’s get it right
Our town is embarking on a project that will change the face of Hopkinton for generations — an 8-mile trail that will connect Hopkinton Center to Milford to the south and to Ashland to the east. We need to get the Upper Charles Trail right. A friend recently reminded...
Town shares details while critics rail about trail proposal
“If you build it, he will come.” It’s the classic line from the Kevin Costner film “Field of Dreams.” Over time, the line has been changed to, “If you build it, they will come,” often used when referring to new development in a city or town. In Hopkinton, there’s no...
School Committee roundup: No support for trail proposal; budget vote upcoming
The School Committee at its Thursday meeting voted unanimously not to support a current application proposed by the Upper Charles Trail Committee (UCTC) to extend a portion of its trail across the Irvine-Todaro property to Hayden Rowe Street. UCTC Chair Jane Moran in...
Upper Charles Trail Committee hears public comments on trail progress
At its public meeting on Wednesday, the Upper Charles Trail Committee (UCTC) provided a progress report on the Hopkinton portion of the proposed trail project, an 8-mile path through town that extends from Milford to Ashland. The presentation by UCTC Chair Jane Moran...
Hopkinton Trails Club proposes alternate route for Upper Charles Trail extension in town
The Upper Charles Trail Committee (UCTC) is hosting a meeting Wednesday night (7) at the Senior Center to discuss the committee's proposed route for the extension of the Upper Charles Trail. The Hopkinton Trails Club has expressed concern about the plan, especially...
Letter to the Editor: Trails should not be paved
Editor's note: This letter is in reference to the proposal to pave portions of the planned Upper Charles Trail continuation in Hopkinton. When is a trail not a trail? When it's a paved paradise. Let's just massacre the whole trail concept, destroy the ecology, the...
Letter to the Editor: Stone dust better choice for trails
I’m one of the signers of the petition to keep Hopkinton’s woodland trails soft-surfaced. With 210 signatures so far on the online petition and more on the original paper petition, it seems like a lot of trail users agree with me. I usually make two points about the...
Trail organizers take different paths on town plan
Hopkinton has an ambitious goal to have a trail system that runs through town, picking up from the Upper Charles Trail in Milford and connecting to a proposed trail in Ashland. A number of people have been hard at work to accomplish this task, and while they are...
Letter to the Editor: Support for stone dust trails
I’d like to second John Ritz’s letter about stone dust trails in last week’s Independent. My dog and I use Center Trail almost every day and it’s always a pleasure to leave the noise and heat of Main Street and enter its peaceful shade. In a hundred feet you’re in the...
Letter to the Editor: Trails should be stone dust
[Recently] I rode my road bike (skinny-tire 10-speed) the entire length of the completed portions of the Upper Charles Trail, from the Hopkinton-Milford town line through Milford, then through Holliston to the Sherborn border. I didn’t think my bike would do well on...