Blog

Board Members:

Bold indicated people in attendance

Others in Attendance:  Sam Marshall, Midd College. Jon Bowdish. Rob Wheland,  Andy McIntosh

REGULAR BUSINESS

President’s Report

Sam Marshall, our Middlebury College ‘22 representative, presented a proposal to sign the trails on Chipman Hill to the Battell Trust Board. 

Sam met with Battell Trust trustees (Tony & Caleb Kenna) last Friday with mixed reaction. Sam had made maps, discussed what it would entail to place signs on trails. Sam suggested it would help people get around the trails. Trail names are the sticking point; not necessarily the idea of signs. Sam is graduating but there may be a couple of other students to pick up the project. Signing the trails would create a more established relationship between Battell Trust and ACBC. 

The trails can be tricky and easy to get lost. Trail signage would be helpful for safety and convenience. Trails could just be colored; not named. Having an identifier would be helpful. ACBC has tried before and Battell trustees have been opposed. Have discussed safety signage and trail names for all users. 

Next steps: George will set up meeting with Tony and the Battell board. Sam: ACBC to decide what the priorities are?  Names were created during ACBC board meetings a couple of years ago. Concern that If trails are signed it would make them more welcome to MTBs and less inviting walkers and hikers. 

Treasurer’s Report

April Bank Statement – Balance $14,413.47

Debits = $725.00 (Maple Marketing – Sue Hoxie $720) and $5 bank fees

Credits = $1,147.50 (membership)

Membership Report (Activity from 4/18/22 to 5/15/22)

• New memberships
  • (1) Individual 
  • (1) Family of 2
  • (1) U25
• Returning memberships
  • (7) Individual
  • (2) Family of 2
  • (2) Family of 3
  • (4) Family of 4
  • (1) Family of 5
• 66 memberships
• 132 total members

Social Media Report – Alan Hebert

Several posts on Facebook and a couple on Insta. FB stats: reach is up 10%. Likes up 100%. Views up 13% and we are gaining new followers (up by 250%) Need pictures of April’s and May’s workdays to add content. Sue will create shared folder on Google. George & Seth will post pictures from April there.

Trails Report Middlebury – Andrew Hirsch

The workday was very successful and all the trails are riding really well.  Wet areas have dried completely. The spring ephemerals are in abundance and you should all check out the trillium!

The Washington St. Ext. bridge has been repaired by an anonymous person.  It works quite well and could last for many years.  How does the board feel about replacing it with a new one that matches the rest of the bridges?  Tying the circuit together with a common bridge does have advantages. – circle back with Marc Lapin. Andrew to follow up with Marc. If he knows what happened and does it meet Marc’s guidelines?

The 5/21 workday is coming up and there are three sawyers prepared to clear downfall on CR, OR and LH.  Others are needed for lopping and hand raking deep piles of leaves.

Trails Report Moosalamoo – Ashar Nelson 

Work day on 5/21. Campground Trail is riding great. Top of ridge great. Portions of OR, LH, CR will be worked on this Saturday. Probably will have more people than we need.

Connector Trail: Entire route has been flagged with Tom LP. Can’t start until 2023, too busy with other projects. 

Trails Report Bristol – Seth Beck: Work continues on the new beginner-friendly trail from the mid station down. Progress has been sped by use of a mini excavator from Averi Smith Construction and operation by Dan Forrest. We had our first trail building day of the year on May 7th with 6 volunteers putting in 4 hours each. (Seth Beck, Jen Beck, Michael Moriarty, Nolan Moriarty, Tim Steele, and Dan Forrest). Dan and I have been putting in consistent time as we can to move the trail along and are targeting Memorial Day weekend for it to be open. We plan to have some sort of gathering on May 29th to celebrate the opening. 

With this trail and the word getting out, we need to legitimize the setup to minimize impact on the landowners by finishing the parking lot, upgrading the road, and putting in adequate signage. The landowner is willing to provide labor for both the parking lot/road and the signage if we can cover the materials. The ask is $500 of lumber for signs and a kiosk and $1500 of material for the lot and road. The MoBB has $500 from bottle donations and would like $1500 from the club.

Trails Report Vergennes – Scott Hardy

No report.

Events

• 5/21: Moosalamoo trail workday.  Meet at Oak Ridge Trailhead at 8:30 am. Need photos, names and email addresses. 

Special Projects 

• Middlebury Pump Track: Nothing to report. 

NEW/OTHER BUSINESS

• Trail raking. Raking is overkill and promotes erosion. Blow/rake narrower tread or leave it alone entirely. Create policy, post on the website. Worth raking on new trail? Timing? Tabled until June issue. 
• Tracking form for volunteer hours – Sue will create capture form for MA. Volunteers can report their hours directly to VMBA. 
• New Leaf signage and parking lot improvements – Seth. Money left in Vergennes grant. Couldn’t we reassign some $$ to Bristol? Spent $1K of $5K grant? Not time critical. Sue to ask Scott if we can move $1500 from Vergennes grant to Bristol; then discuss with Nick.
• Marquis Theatre has been reserved for Wednesday, May 25, 6 – 8:30 pm.  Kitchen closes at 7:30 pm. $100 rental cost. George, Ashar and Carl can lead rides. George moved that we buy 1st drink; Seth seconded. Unanimously approved. Sue to let Marquis know. People report out on the last year. George will say a few words. Nick Bennette, VMBA, planning to attend. Talk about work done so far this year. Seth will do overview of Bristol, Ashar talk about Moosalamoo. 
• Andy: chainsaw re-certification. If certified it’s been extended to end of 2022. If had by 10/1/19. Trying to get Catamount Trail folks certified and recert. Only for FS lands. Ashar has taught classes in the past. He’ll contact Chris for recertify local people. Andy is trail steward for CTA. Advocating for making CTA trails multi-use.

NEXT MEETING

June 21, 2022, 7 pm