Dear Craig,

This email covers these important items all important in their own way.

1. Annual Members Meeting November 24, 2019, 2pm, Pedal Power Acton
2. A link to the fall 2019 newsletter http://bit.ly/BFRTNews-Fall-2019.  Lots of items, including photos from Phase 2C ribbon cutting and much, much more
3. Please advocate for MA H.1790 and S.83, and get the rail trail built in Sudbury
4. Your Membership status

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Friends Annual Members Meeting & Board Member Elections

• Date: Sunday November 24
• Time: 2 pm
• Who: All are welcome.  All dues paying members can vote
• Where: Pedal Power Acton 176 Great Road Acton.  Parking is available at Patriot Square, across Great Road from Pedal Power
• What:  Come celebrate the progress made in 2019 and see what to look forward to in 2020, and vote for Board Members.  Light refreshments will be served.
• Contact: Tom Michelman, 978-580-6190, tmichelman@gmail.com

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Advocate for H.1790 and S.83:

18626205. Line Action Item – Support State Legislation to Support Rail Trails including the BFRT: Please write, call or visit your State Representative and State Senator and tell them why you support for H.1790 and S.83 (identical bills and both named An Act authorizing municipalities to expend certain funds for the acquisition of land to be used for rail trails). Both of public hearings have already taken place, but there is still plenty of time to advocate. Links to background, sample/templates for letters and emails, and instructions for advocating are found on this MassBike webpage https://www.massbike.org/cpa_fund_railtrail_main.

Details:

The Issue: Note this issue discussion is an embellishment of Bruce Freeman Rail Trail specific issues of what is found on the MassBike webpage provided just above. Many Massachusetts cities and towns have used Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds for rail trail development; including purchasing land, and paying for studies, design and construction of rail trails (a great option for rail trail development). However, a 2009 Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR) interpretation of the laws disallowed the use of CPA funds to purchase a federally rail banked railroad rights-of-way (ROW) because theoretically the intact ROW could be repurchased by the railroad to restart service.

13031. DOR letter issued was specifically regarding the use of CPA funds for the purchase of the CSX owned ROW in Sudbury from Station Road south to the Framingham border for Phase 3 of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail (See overview map of the BFRT when it is built out. Maps of the currently open sections Phases 1 & 2A can be found here, and Phase 2C here). That means the DOR interpretation letter has held up the purchase of the Sudbury portion of Phase 3 of the BFRT for 10 years (and yes, those CPA funds are still available for ROW purchase for now but let me for once not go down another rabbit hole of details and history about that here).

Nonetheless, experience shows that railroads would only repurchase the ROW if it was in their economic interest to do so (i.e., there was enough projected traffic on the line to justify the investment). This is a rare event nationally (e.g., an Appalachian coal mine spur line restarted so it could import garbage from New England to bury in the vacant mine, ironic, eh?), and virtually unthinkable in Massachusetts where the economics and the permitting fights strongly prohibit such an investment (and totally unthinkable in Sudbury).

This restriction is currently blocking the use of CPA funds not only to extend the BFRT in Sudbury but also the Southampton Greenway (in, you guessed it, Southampton, MA). Both segments are important connections: The BFRT will link to the partially constructed and envisioned 103-mile Mass Central Trail from Boston to Northampton (see this blog post for more details on the status of the connection), and Southampton Greenway to the 85-mile mostly constructed and envisioned New Haven to Northampton Canal Trail. Also note the CSX corridor continues south into Framingham, and while Framingham has not passed the CPA a recent bond bill allocated $1,000,000 to Framingham for developing the BFRT and hopefully will be used for the purchase for the last portion of the dormant CSX corridor.

Proposed Solution: Proposed legislation H.1790 and S.83, filed by Rep. Carmine Gentile and Sen. James Eldridge, resolves this issue in a straight-forward fashion by clarifying that use of CPA funds may be used to purchase federally rail banked ROWs. This not only solves the issue in Sudbury and Southampton, but also for any future ROWs that face the same conundrum. This clarification would open up CPA funds currently available in 175 cities and town throughout Massachusetts!

115387. Details on Joint Advocacy: As you can see the advocacy instructions are posted on the MassBike website (not the FBFRT website, yet, but hope to have a link from the main page soon). We (the FBFRT) have been coordinating with Rep. Carmine Gentile, Senator Jamie Eldridge, MassBike, Northeast Greenway Solutions, the Town of Southampton, and Len Simon former Sudbury Selectman.
        
        MassBike has reached out to their network to get the word out and has graciously hosted the webpage as this is a statewide connection / network issue, not just a BFRT issue. That is, MassBike is actively advocating for rail trails as a safe alternative for active transportation.
353. one better understands the issues and opportunities of networking rail trails than does rtheast Greenway Solutions spearheaded by long-time rail trail advocate and guru Craig Della Penna. If you are interested in rail trails in the northeast (looking for the next new shiny path to bike or walk on as I do) then you should subscribe to the free email newsletter News about the Developing Rail Trail Network in the Region on the rtheast Greenway Solutions website. The latest newsletter features advocacy for H.1790 and S.83.

Town of Southampton – And its Southampton Greenway has the same issues as does the BFRT for future development. Ed Gibson the Town Administrator/Chief Financial Officer has been enthusiastically on board as soon as he became aware of the H.1790.

Representative Carmine Gentile, and his legislative aide Joe Russo have been invaluable in guiding us on how to best advocate via timing, process, letter writing templates and recommendations of in person testimony.

Last and not least, there has been no one who has been a stronger and longer friend of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail in the state legislature than Senator Jamie Eldridge. His filing of S.83 in a different committee gives us two bites at the apple.

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Note on Your Current Membership Status:

Find your membership status below.

Our records indicate that your membership expiration is: 12/30/2019 (This will be blank if you have never joined the FBFRT as a dues paying member)

If your membership is expired or you wish to join the FBFRT please use the link below to access your account:

https://fbfrt.z2systems.com/np/direct.do?orgIdSecure=HjQjf%2B%2FA7Wo%3D&target=membershipJoin&accountIdSecure=QogiO1iByWA%3D&channelCode=null&

Or if you would prefer to send a check, mail it to:

Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail
PO Box 1192
Concord, MA 01742

Individual Membership $10
Family Membership $25
Sponsor $50
Conductor $100
Engineer $250
RR Tycoon $500+

The Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail, Inc. is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization—membership fees and donations are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

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If you have any questions or want to get off this e-mail list feel free to contact me directly at tmichelman@gmail.com or 978-580-6190. 

Best regards,

Tom Michelman
President - Friends of the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail
www.brucefreemanrailtrail.org
978-580-6190
tmichelman@gmail.com