VTGC Quarterly Meeting 2/13/13 UVM James Jeffords Hall Attending: Walter Opuszynski, Danny Hale, Ed O’Leary, Jessi Hudson, Katherine Wrigley, Tom Stussey, Dani Cady, Sherry Winnie, Will Flender, Keegan Tierney, Dave Hardy, Jess Ricketson, Amy Kelsey, Carol Burd Roundtable Discussion: Introductions and project updates from those attending. VASA: Safety courses Ed O’Leary: corridor maintenance plans Sherry Winnie: updates to grant process Tom Stussey: VMBA. Perry Hill and Cotton Brook, training for members first time ever Will Flenner: Mad River Path, strategic planning for completed path Kathryn Wrigley: Hiring mode for seasonal staff Keagan Tierney: planning mode, applied for Americorps grant, potential to run longer season crews, older crews, lower rate Dani Cady: Safety courses Dave Hardy: permitting mode with Act 250 for suspension bridge, trail relo Smuggs, Bolton and town dev. Review process, ski areas with LT interfaces Walter Opuszynski: Eagle Pond in Missisquoi Wildlife Mgmt Area, camping precedent Minutes: Add Ed O’Leary to those who attended. Motion to pass by Dave Hardy, seconded by Dani Cady, passed Treasures Report: Membership is not strong: balance is fine, but only 20 responded to letter. Q: MRP is current? Paid in April A: Dani: are you getting notifications from website? 3 of us got reminders, no one else. Will need to look into website issues Issues with reporting updates on the website, or find a new system Need to something about membership Never have received a bill for lunch from VYCC for Trail Symposium. VASA invoice for mailing $2000 for website grant (in checking account- then need to be reimbursed) Motion: Will, Dave seconded, passed Committee Reports Membership Committee: MOU: VASA and VTGC Learning civi, doing data analysis, need to increase membership, newsletter? Yes soon.
Targeting commissions in towns, etc. Some towns are on a different cycle than ours. Brainstorming: Dave: A questionnaire to towns about how we can meet their needs. Ed: ask member towns why they are members, make argument for benefits Phone calls to towns/town clerks Did handbook mailing, need a reminder that they have that Contact VT Assoc. of Conservation Commissions VLCT, Land Trusts etc. VT Trail Collaborative contacts Sponsorship from private businesses Membership/development staff: donate time to work with Dani to brainstorm, learn How broad do we want this membership? Subgroups of organizations? Communication What are we trying to grow? Marketing plan for individual membership Dave: What are we doing becomes the question- have some money. Trail Ethic poster which is not being used. Major trail stakeholders sitting in this room, relationships with agencies, learning from each other’s experiences. Membership is nice, but we are here to provide the state with input. Danny: support this Dave: focus is good, need to work together to focus on recreation and put the public in,touch with agency partners etc. Danny: focus on getting website right, as well as membership list. Next meeting talk about membership development Walt: need money to pay for staff time Amy: can find grants for particular initiatives MOU: reviewing terms, agreement from group Website: Tamarack goal is to make these processes as simple as they can be Changed MOU cap to $2300 Outreach Committee: Newsletter: Reached out to Kevin Russell about newsletter format. Hoping he will donate what he has, so we can put this out to print. Ry expressed that he doesn’t have the time to chair the committee, need someone to do this, esp. finding printing quotes, etc. Newsletter and website updates. Reviewed content of newsletter: our 20th anniversary, Gov. Conference 70th. Links in newsletter to website Encouraged people to send articles, updates Next week sending it to print, Walter will send a link around Sherry: send around a unified message to members? Need members, chair for committee in order to do this, press release, etc. Sherry will be willing to work with someone on press release , Dave will assist (National Trails Day)
ANR Relations: How do we move forward? Developed a process to annually submit feedback to ANR Commissioner. Utilized surveys last year, got some good information, statistics. Do we continue with survey systems? Report seemed well-received. Discussion on gathering feedback: Jessica: surveys need to be more professional, representative. Maybe issue briefs instead. Dave: we have focus groups around the table, each group can generate good information, not democratic, but representative. This is why we are members: having expertise in the room as well as representation. Again, back to why we are here. Danny: maybe council was intended to be more representative of user groups, don’t think we’re going to have large membership if we are representative Ed: statute: trail using and trail groups to provide input to ANR Issues? -Keeping parking lots plowed in the winter -Keeping snow: what happens to trails when the use is no longer valid? How do we plan? -VMBA: have we submitted top five issues to chair of board? Can we refresh that and then come together and discuss it? -Continuing work on the issues from last year: look at report and rate those topics. --Could be more than just once a year Send major issues to Walter by March 15th. Will send out a reminder. RTP Update: Timeline: plan is to hold next grant round will begin in mid-June with a mid-September deadline, ranking committee mid-October, November approval, ready to be used in March 2014. Policy clarification on Class IV roads: new questions in applications as well as supporting documentation from towns. Additional information on what constitutes a legally binding agreement for what constitutes public access for new construction of trails on private lands. Policy clarification on conservation easements on lands. Dave: role from VTGC in this policy? Walt: Ed was talking to towns for options? Ed: conversations with Fed. Hwy, felt that we could use RTP funds on Class IV roads in specific cases, language and details need to be fine-tuned so they will be acceptable to FHwy. Town cannot prevent anyone from access to Class IV road, so now looking for agreements with towns to keep any improvements upgraded. Act 250 triggers as well. New trail project involved in VTS, how this affects Act 250. Soon clarification will come on these issues. Participation: issues given to FPR to handle Easement issue: need long-term assurances from public entities for public access to trail resources, on private property, need a trail easement for a period of ten years. VYCC case: property conserved thru VHCB and VLT, but still private property. Is support letter needed or easement?
Ed: Title 10 VTS. This statute talks about permission: shall be acquired from a willing landowner (written permission). Clearly written, obligations, etc. Trying to determine easement vs. written permission Trail easement process is lengthy, so it’s a difficult process. Get trail easement before applying for grants beforehand if you can. Need to be very clear on whether new trail construction vs. maintenance. New trail vs. old trail: can make one and then call it existing. Once you are a part of VTS, you are providing a public purpose, is that sufficient for Fed. Hwy? Ed: get RTP grant for new trail, as long as you’re part of VTS, no Act 250 process Do we need an easement to do maintenance? Written agreement for ten years: no term in statute (easement). Need to make sure that it’s easy. Danny: most of us have existing landowner agreements with dates. Hard to get people to sign easements: can we review whether these existing agreements will suffice? Ed: send some examples by March 1st Will: how is Fed Hwy dealing with town land, land that is unencumbered by easement and trail easements? Sherry: we are not doing a good enough job collecting assurances from towns. So, we’ll have better information in RTP guidebook, currently collect town forest plans, etc. Will: not same level as with private land? Yes Will: grant schedule: will that be schedule from now on? Special for this year. Bi-annual schedule? Back to traditional schedule next year (February) Will: caps and matches are the same? Yes Dave: rights of way? It would trump easement, more permanent. Dave: even state land is ephemeral, so getting right of way. LWCF Update: Ed: Wrapping up comments to the SCORP. Verbal confirmation from NPS that they will approve it, but will be delayed because they are changing their financial system. By the end of the month will get it to Philadelphia, hoping to have an April training on new system. Would hope that sometime June and July will get the green light. Good news is that $350,000 in bank as well as more potential appropriations. Combining the VT Trail Symposium with the Governor’s Conference on Recreation Thursday September 26th, Wednesday is outdoor events We would get our own track, and our role would be to find presenters for it. Increases cost, but broadens opportunities esp. for parks related topics. Fee is $75. Members could get a reduced rate. We would also offer workshops and would be paid directly for those satellite workshops. They will take care of planning and outreach, and we will assist.
Dave: who goes to this? Parks, towns, municipalities. Challenge for us will be the audience, scheduling. That’s why we crossed into our own event. Danny: we won’t know how this will be until we try it. Focus on recreation has changed since we were last there, more interest. Dave: active or tabling? Danny: are we trying to provide information to this group or our groups? Walt: Thursday- could be three different workshops, could be reduced. Dave: sounds like an opportunity for this group to provide information on their needs to the Council. Could do the same workshop three times to reach the most people. Walt: need to think about our audiences. Survey to past Symposium attendees maybe helpful to determine if those who typically have attended the Symposium will go to this event. Goal today is to see if we want to go forward with this, and then deciding how best to do this. Hands-on workshops, skills Amy: this seems like a good networking event. We could also have weekend workshops with project work, etc. Danny: would work for our community Sherry: we should open up projects to the Council community Will: invite FPR general counsel and discuss easements at next meeting Ed: provide topics, questions and we can invite Megan Walt: can we agree to take a track at the conference? Ed: are we going to ask them what they want? Walt: work with committee to come up with topics Kathryn: we should provide them with choices Topic Ideas: -Managing Volunteers -Grants -Easements -Pine Hill Park -Josh Ryan technical aspect -Stowe- Cady Hill Project -Charley- stone work -John Taylor from Valley Trails Individual Workshop Ideas/Gov. Recreation Conference Committee? Dave: tying workshops to Council Google group: list and events get out, discussion board. Way to distribute information. Will would be happy to manage and set up google group. Walt will talk more with Will about this Landowner Liability Walt was on VPR discussing this topic. Council did put out brochure years ago- scanned copy on MRP website. Commissioner has asked legal counsel to come up with simplified information for the public. In the newsletter: liability issues.
After the segment: if there’s a link between real estate and home sales, making landowners aware at the time of the transaction about this to keep land from being posted so much. Maybe FPR information could be the supplement for these packets. One issue that benefits Rec trails and there’s not enough information to the public. Other organization’s perspectives: NFCT covers the fee if litigation is brought even though it will end with statute. Dave: can you distribute the statute? We are required to provide liability insurance. Danny: ours goes above and beyond to cover association Individual organizations have conversations with their affected landowners about additional insurance coverage, not the Council Walt: what more can we do to get this information out? Dave: make member organizations aware so that they can provide that information to their landowners Walt: will FPR post it on the website similar to how F&W posts it on their website? Ed: good question, should be agency statement Review of Board We need a nomination process, Dave has expressed interest in being Chair. Need treasurer, maybe secretary. What kind of process do we want to have? Try to keep representation of organizations Discussion of roles: who will be staying, moving…Dani volunteered to be treasurer, Amy will go to board. Jess will stay as vice-chair Names for potential board/exec. Committee: -Ry -Josh -CJ Danny will work on nominations with Sherry May 22nd will be annual meeting at Seyon, Walt will look into it Other Business: Vermont Trail System Sherry passed around a packet for applications in November/December. Should be up on website. Jurisdictional threshold for trails is moving in a good direction: Natural Resources Board is looking at VTS trails under Act 250 as public project not private. Threshold is very different for these two projects: private is size of parcel, public is just affected land (much smaller). VTS project would mean up to ten acres of disturbance: ex. Bolton project is 6 acres (4-5 miles of trails). Still have to go to district coordinator to interpret the ruling. Still need Act 250 permit for existing permitted land- amendment, pretty short process, just adjacent land owners of permitted land. Other piece is, if you inflicted Act 250 on your project, you used to inflict it on their entire parcel, new ruling indicates that area of land is only trail corridor and facilities associated with it. Ed: taken ruling and are circulating a draft that will be sent out soon. VTS list compiled: put on websites Need to step up this process, letter in month of April, work with Sherry, Dave, Amy and Will offered help, exec. Committee
Meeting Adjourned, 12:30 pm