Bike path gets endorsed by state
Published on August 19th, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - Pump up your tires and begin oiling your chains because the Tri-Community Bike Path is finally coming to fruition thanks to its endorsement by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC).
The town received word of the MAPC endorsement late last week and was told that $1.2 million recommended for appropriation. According to State Representative Paul Casey, the town can expect to receive the funding within a year.
"(Final approval) is almost there," Casey told the Independent earlier this week. "This endorsement doesn't guarantee it. It's just the next step.
"We're one step away from winning the World Series, per se."
Cameron Bain, chairman of the Railroad Land Use Committee and coordinator of the Tri-Community Bikeway Committee, agreed that, while this does not translate into an appropriation, the bike path is just around the corner.
"Everything else from now on is a formality," he said. "Once MAPC endorses it, that's it. We anticipated this right along."
Bain explained that the MAPC requested that the Tri-Town Community Bikeway Committee reduce its original request of $2.9 million in order to get the project started. The committee came back with a $1.2 million bid which they expect to receive in March or April of 1999, Bain said, and will then reapply for the remainder of the funding.
The MAPC appropriated a total of $10 million for 15 projects in the state. 80 percent of the funding will be funded by the federal government, 20 percent by the state and an additional 10 percent is expected to be contributed by municipalities.
"Very few of these projects were totally funded," Casey said, citing the $10 million limit in funding.
Bain said that the town expects to receive $10,000 from Walgreens Pharmacy for their contractor's failure to meet certain site plan approval requirements. This money, he said, would likely be put toward the community portion of the expenditure.
Casey explained that, once funding is approved by another state committee, the ball will fall in the court of the Mass Highway Department to take action. With the big dig eating up enormous amounts of money, however, the Tri-Community Bikeway Committee will have to keep tabs on the appropriation, he said, and push for the implementation of designs.
"This is where the spin comes on," he explained. "Once it's been reviewed for final eligibility, they say we could get funding within the year, but we're going to have to keep on Mass Highway."
Bain said that the future of the bike path could be infinite, with several communities coming forward in recent months and asking how they could link up to the bikeway. Reading, North Reading, Lynnfield, Wakefield, Saugus and Melrose have expressed interest in joining the tri-communities - Stoneham, Winchester and Woburn, he said.
"Basically, it will be an ongoing project," Bain stated. "We'll just continue working on it."
Bain said that the $1.2 million would likely pay for the entire Stoneham length of the path - beginning at Recreation Park and across to Pleasant Street. It would then run behind the Middle School and Pomeworth Park, travel across to Walgreens and Stop & Shop, run across Montvale Avenue to Maple Street and then into Woburn. The original funding will also pay for a portion of the bike path in Woburn and Winchester.
Phase 2 of the project would continue work in Woburn along the Aberjona River and into Winchester, eventually linking with the Minuteman Trail bike path which already runs through several other communities including Lexington and Arlington.
In addition, Bain said talks are in the works to link a Spot Pond bike path to the larger trail if and when that project gets under way.
"We are excited," Casey said of the project. "Getting selected is the key and now it's just a matter of getting final approval.
"We seem to be well on our way."
In other biking news, Cameron Bain will be taking part in the Autumn Escape Bike Trek which benefits the American Lung Association.
The trek takes place on September 11 to the 13 across 160 miles. Anyone wishing to be a sponsor can send a check, payable to the American Lung Association, to the following address: Cameron Bain, 12 Highland Avenue, Stoneham, MA, 02180. If you have further questions, he can be contacted at 438-2017.
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