HomeOpinionLetter to the Editor: Select Board Failed on Trails

Letter to the Editor: Select Board Failed on Trails

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UniBank CD Special

It’s unfortunate that the Hopkinton Select Board shirked their management responsibilities with regard to the Upper Charles Trail Committee.

This committee was appointed by the Select Board and given a specific assignment. The committee is charged with identifying routes for a multi-use trail connecting with Milford and Ashland. In addition, they are to use the existing Center Trail. The committee has spent eleven years exploring routes. 

If the Select Board was dissatisfied with the progress of the committee, they could have had a discussion with them. Instead they allowed a dispute between town volunteers to simmer and erupt at our recent town meeting.

Volunteers are the energy that keeps our democracy going. They are a valuable resource and should be treated with curtesy and respect.

The challenge now is to restore a civil process and establish trust so that the work of building a multi-use trail can be completed. It is a complex charge with no current solution. There are lots of facts, ideas, and views and a “not in my back (or front) yard” sentiment.

Communication, compromise and trust are required if we are to have this trail.

Sally Snyder

37 Eastview Road and former member of the Select Board

20th Century Homes
UniBank CD Special

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Why are there always commercial trucks parked in the Hugh’s trail lot. I can never find parking spot? There are also always vehicles parked there after dark?

  2. Thank you, Sally. As I have said to the SB and many, this has been an arbitrary and biased process. It is led by a few who, for some time and for some unspoken reason, have been hell-bent on disbanding the Upper Charles Trail Committee. Misinformation has flooded social media. A few have spun a fictional story full of falsehoods. Instead of recognizing the diligence, accomplishments and progress of the UCTC, the committee and its members have been chastised.

    Now I must say…The Trail Coordination and Management Committee’s proposed “western alternative” is an option that the Upper Charles Trail Committee has already explored. At that time, no route connecting the Hughes property trails to the Center Trail was viable.

    Acquisition of or easements on all four private properties needed to build a trail around the Charlesview neighborhood was not possible. The on;y other option of going through the Charlesview neighborhood was overwhelmingly opposed by neighborhood residents. For those reasons, the UCTC moved on to explore the viability of other route options.

    Now, the TCMC proposes the same route around the Charlesview neighborhood that requires acquisition or easements on the same four private properties. As an alternative, the TCMC proposes using a portion of Joseph, Daniel and or Alexander Road.

    The UCTC and TCMC have already been told by residents of those roads that they strongly oppose any trail through the neighborhood. Private property acquisition(s) or easements for all properties needed is still highly unlikely, leaving TCMC with the opposed route through Charlesview. How the TCMC thinks it would get neighborhood acceptance of this proposal is mystifying.

    The proponents of disbanding the Upper Charles Trail Committee assert that objections to a potential Upper Charles Trail segment along a portion of Hayden Rowe Street are the impetus for their petition. The UCTC. Disbanding the UCTC for this reason is ridiculous. As a tactic to chastise and discredit the UCTC.

    Maybe it’s time for the Charlesview residents to rise up and force the Select Board to disband the TCMC because they don’t listen to the ‘overwhelming majority’ of residents opposed to any trail through the Charlesview neighborhood.

    A map of the TCMC’s proposed trail can be seen at: http://www.hopkintontrailsclub.com/uct/map1_alternative_route.pdf.

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