STURBRIDGE - Now that the town has stockpiled more than 1,200 acres of open space, it's time to get down to tracing all that land with an intaglio of trails and walking paths.
So for the Sturbridge trails committee, it's going to be a busy summer.
Or more like a busy few years.
The group is now in the midst of blazing and expanding new paths, surveying land, and identifying various trail conditions with universal symbols.
As committee chair Randy Redetzke put it, “There are quite a few things going on.”
And much of that is aided by several grants – as well as a flock of dedicated volunteers.
For starters, the trails committee has cobbled together more than $45,000 in funding from various sources.
The most recent of those is $2,520 from the Connecticut-based nonprofit The Last Green Valley. That particular grant, Redetzke explained, will be used to purchase gravel to improve a section of the Titanic Rail Trail that spans from Holland Road to the East Brimfield dam. It requires an in-kind match from the town of 40 hours of tractor time and 50 hours of labor, he explained.
In fact, the Titanic trail is the focal point of a flourish of activity – and not just in Sturbridge. Through the oversight of the nonprofit Grand Trunk Trailblazers, groups from Franklin to Palmer are working to link up between 60 and 80 miles of the passage, which is named in honor of its beneficiary, Grand Trunk Railways president Charles Hays, who went down with the famously unsinkable luxury liner in 1912.
But that's not the only historical link: Those who meander the trail can unearth chunks of near-100-year-old coal from when the bed was built, Redetzke noted.
To work on portions that wind through Sturbridge, the town has made use of a $35,600 grant from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
That money helped with surface and drainage improvements on a one-and-a-half mile section stretching from Wallace Road to the Calcutt Bridge, and it was matched with materials, equipment and labor from the town and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a total value of around $96,500, Redetzke said.
In hopes to continue that work, the trails committee will soon access a federal highway grant, administered through MassHighway, totaling $580,000. As Redetzke explained, that will cover costs of designing and building a three-quarter-mile section continuing on from the Calcutt Bridge to Farquhar Road. A consulting engineer will soon be hired to perform design work.
“That one's getting close,” Redetzke said. “We've been working on that for many years.”
Meanwhile, when it comes to other trails in town, two small bridges are being installed on the Leadmine Mountain property, and volunteers recently completed a universal trail assessment process (or a UTAP) for the Pond Loop on the Heins conservation lands. Essentially, that process affixes universal symbols to the trail's grade, slope, width, surface and length.
What's more, a $1,900 grant from Savers Bank will improve signs on land adjacent to the Heins farm, and $5,000 from the American Hiking Society has stockpiled 378 yards of gravel that will eventually be used for the Arbutus Park Trail encircling the former Camp Robinson Crusoe.
Clearly, as Redetzke explained, “We pursue grants vigorously.”
And the future is always in mind. “We have to be continuously planning and looking forward several years down the road,” he said.
To that end, the trails committee is now working with the town's recreational trails master plan steering committee to develop a comprehensive plan for the town in regards to its various open space parcels. The groups are now drafting a Request for Proposals (RFP) for design work, Redetzke said.
Overall, he noted that he's pleased with the area's cachet of volunteers – 39 people, 18 of them from outside Sturbridge, showed up for the town's most recent trails day.
And when it comes to actually journeying the newly-blazed trails? “We're very happy with the number of people we're seeing using them,” Redetzke said.
For more information, email Redetzke at rredet@charter.net.