Rail Trail Meeting

JOHNSON RAIL TRAIL COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES JOHNSON MUNICIPAL BUILDING WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2025 Present: Committee Members: Adrian Schmidt, Kim Dunkley, Jan Gearhart, Peggy Williams, Doug Molde, Mary Lou Kopas, Lynda Hill Others: Charles Flaum, Morna Flaum Absent: BJ Putvain Note: All votes taken are unanimous unless otherwise noted. 1. Call Meeting to Order Adrian called the meeting to order at 6:11. 2. Approval of Minutes Lynda moved to approve the minutes of May 14, 2025, Mary Lou seconded and the motion was passed. Peggy moved to approve the minutes of June 18, 2025, Doug seconded and the motion was passed. 3. Additions to Agenda Kim said she wants to make sure the committee discusses the bullet points BJ sent out in preparation for the next village trustee board meeting. Jan said she would like to discuss the location for the kiosk that will be put at the trailhead. 4. Ted Alexander Welcome Center Adrian said Tom Galinat told him Brian Raulinaitis is now estimating a cost of $14,250 for the Welcome Center repairs and improvements. That is with ice and water shield instead of wainscoting. Mary Lou said she thought the idea was to put in a different kind of water fountain so water doesn’t continue to get onto the building. Doug said that was Tom’s suggestion – to put in a fountain that allows people to fill water bottles instead of the faucet that drains straight down. We don’t know if that is included in Brian’s estimate. Adrian said a formal bid and estimate will be coming soon. Mary Lou said Brian’s original estimate was higher than the estimate the grant match was based on. Brian had said he thought he could bring his estimate closer to that. This is a couple of thousand dollars more than that. Morna Flaum asked if this includes a working bathroom. Committee members said no. Doug said the selectboard thought a bathroom would be an attractive nuisance. Lynda asked what will go over the ice and water shield to replace the wainscoting. Adrian said metal. Lynda asked, why not a solid sheet of Formica? Jan said she thinks metal would last longer. She suggested that Brian come to a meeting so committee members can talk to him about his plans. Peggy asked about the source of the money to pay for this. Jan said what we had in our budget has been approved. Mary Lou said there would be an extra $2K above what we budgeted. We do have money from our Community Fund grant. Jan said she talked to another builder who thought Brian’s proposed cost was reasonable. Rail Trail Committee Meeting Minutes p. 2 July 16, 2025 Mary Lou moved to approve spending $14,250 for Back Forty Builders to work on the Ted Alexander Welcome Center this year, contingent on Tom Galinat and Adrian approving an itemized estimate from Back Forty Builders, with the additional $2000 in unanticipated costs to come from the Community Fund grant, Kim seconded and the motion was passed. The committee discussed the best location for the new trailhead map kiosk that will be put up. There are LVRT guidelines for placement. It needs to be at least 10-12 ft. from the trail. Jackie Cassino needs to approve the location. Kim moved to put the map kiosk 10 feet from the rail trail in the area near the bike pump, to the left of the path leading from the trail to the Ted Alexander Welcome Center, parallel to the rail trail, contingent on approval of the location by Jackie Cassino, Lynda seconded and the motion was passed. Jan will call Jackie Cassino and arrange for her to come see the proposed location. Jan said the only other sign the committee was thinking of for the trailhead was one pointing the way to Johnson. Committee members noted that there is already a sign to Johnson. 5. Bike Rack Sandblast Committee members agreed that the sandblasted and painted bike racks look great. Kim thanked Jan, BJ, and Adrienne Parker for their work on the bike racks. 6. Johnson Cold Spring Bike Rack The committee had previously discussed either moving a bike rack to the Cold Spring or purchasing a new one. Peggy asked, wouldn’t moving one be expensive compared to getting a new one? She would recommend getting a new one. Adrian agreed it would be better to purchase one. Kim said her understanding was that the bike rack at the Village Green would be removed so a map pedestal could be placed in that location. She agrees that moving a rack is not a good idea. Adrian said it had previously been discussed that he would talk to Kyle Nuse about bike racks but he hasn’t done that. Lynda and Jan said Kyle was more focused on charging stations. She was looking at a 4-stand charging station on a big concrete pad. Kim said we changed that plan. Jan said we are looking at 2 individual charging stations that are less expensive than the ones Kyle found. Kim said the plan was to put a regular bike rack at the village green, not a charger. Doug and Peggy agreed. Doug moved to authorize Adrian to select a bike rack to purchase for the Cold Spring after checking with Kyle Nuse, with the cost to be as close as possible to $715, and to do whatever is necessary to get on the agenda for the next village trustee board meeting to get approval to install the rack. Kim said she thought the $715 cost previously determined also included the labor, pad and anchoring. Doug said he thinks it was just for the rack. Adrian said he can present a plan for a bike rack and pad for the Cold Spring at the August 11 trustee board meeting. Rail Trail Committee Meeting Minutes p. 3 July 16, 2025 Adrian said the other two locations where we talked about adding bike racks were the Studio Center and Jenna’s Coffee House. The one at Jenna’s would be a charging station. Lynda said she doesn’t think the one at Jenna’s needs to be a charger. Mary Lou said when she reached out to Saris, the company that makes the bike chargers, they said the chargers need to be under a cover that protects them from the weather. Adrian said he thinks that is the nail in the coffin for the bike charger idea. Lynda said she thinks Jenna’s needs a regular bike rack. Adrian suggested getting one for the Cold Spring and one for Jenna’s. Kim said we had talked about one for the library also. Jan asked if we are going to keep bike racks at the 4 locations where they are now. Lynda said the village trustees thought the cement pad where the Village Green bike rack is would be a good location for the map pedestal we had discussed. Kim moved and Peggy seconded to purchase 3 regular (non-charging) bike racks to be placed at the library, Jenna’s Coffee House/Vermont Studio Center and the Cold Spring. Kim said Jean Engel approved putting a bike rack at the library. Lynda said she will talk to Greg Tatro about putting a bike rack at Jenna’s Coffee House. Doug asked how many bikes the existing racks can accommodate. Other committee members said some have room for 3 and some have room for 4. Kim asked what size people think the new racks should be. Adrian said he was thinking of basing it on price. Doug said he thinks we should look at the minutes to see what Kyle previously proposed to the village trustees and duplicate that as much as possible, because they approved what she presented. Adrian said he doesn’t think we need a motion about a bike rack at the Cold Spring. He will follow up with Kyle to see what she presented for the Cold Spring. Jan said she and Lynda have talked about having an electric outlet with a roof over it at the Jenna’s Coffee House building. Lynda said it wouldn’t work to have it at the Studio Center building because of the location of the driveway but there is room at Jenna’s for outlets. She will ask Greg Tatro about it. Jan and Lynda have also talked about having chargers at the Welcome Center. 7. Rail Trail Adjacent Benches Jan said Eric Schultz has occasional access to cedar logs. He got one and had Duncan Hastings cut it in half. We can put a bench just off the trail at Dog’s Head. Kim said there is already a bench there. Jan said there is also a pull-off by the railroad bridge where we could put a bench. Kim said she has done some footwork on that location. She doesn’t think Fish and Wildlife will easily okay putting a bench there. (Lynda left at 7:07.) Adrian suggested that committee members think about potential bench locations. 8. Information to be Confirmed before Next Village Trustee Meeting BJ had sent out 3 items for the committee to confirm before the August 11 trustee board meeting. Doug said developing a proposal for the bike rack at the Cold Spring was one of the things on the list. That is why he moved to delegate authority to decide on a plan to Adrian. (Peggy left at 7:12.) Kim moved to authorize Adrian to purchase the bike rack needed for the Cold Spring, Adrian seconded and the motion was passed. Rail Trail Committee Meeting Minutes p. 4 July 16, 2025 9. Next Meeting The next committee meeting will be August 20 at 6:00 p.m. at the municipal building. 10. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 7:15. Minutes submitted by Donna Griffiths