Rail Trail Meeting

JOHNSON RAIL TRAIL COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES JOHNSON MUNICIPAL BUILDING WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2025 Present: Committee Members: Lynda Hill, Jan Gearhart, Doug Molde, Kim Dunkley Others: Adrienne Parker Absent: Mary Lou Kopas, Adrian Schmidt, BJ Putvain A quorum was not present, but the committee proceeded with informal discussion starting at 6:06. Adrienne Parker said before presenting the map she has been working on, she wants to pin down the town branding. When is the deadline for the map to be completely designed? Doug said the map she is working on will go on the side of the Welcome Center. During winter, usage of the trail is mainly by snowmobiles, which don’t have a way into town. The purpose of this map is really to get people into town. Adrienne said we had talked previously about printing the map as a big decal and when she got a quote on that, they said should be done in the warm months. Jan suggested springtime is when it should go up. She thinks it would be good if we could get it up by April. Doug said Tori Hellwig said LCPC could print it. Jan said the Cambridge trails committee had their map printed at Staples because it was too big. Theirs is 4x6 ft. Adrienne said ours is that size. Jan said she doesn’t think LCPC can print it. Adrienne said her and her partner previously designed a logo for Johnson, but she doesn’t like the way it ended up. She recently designed another one. She showed it to the committee. She thinks it could be used for marketing but also as a municipal logo. She designed a color version, a black and white version and a version that could be used as the Town of Johnson official seal. She also suggests using the same image with different words, such as “Bike Johnson” in situations such as advertising a committee event. She suggests using different colors for different types of actions. Doug asked how the images would be used on Front Porch Forum. Adrienne said we can’t post pictures on Front Porch Forum, but they could be on a poster, Doug asked if she has shown her design ideas to Charles and Morna Flaum yet. Adrienne said no. Adrienne said she hopes to create a cohesive brand system for the town. People can choose to use it or not. We could choose to put a logo that said “Bike Johnson” on bike racks, or not. The food shelf could use one that said “Nourish Johnson,” or not. Doug asked how this will work with the rail trail. The state has a wayfinding guide and prescribed color schemes. Adrienne said she would think anything in the rail trail right of way would be rail trail branded and anything outside it would be town branded. Doug said that is not what VTrans thinks. He suggested that Adrienne should look at the wayfinding guidance. We are trying to get the state to pay for some of our signs. The recreation economy task force submitted a whole list of Johnson attractions. Presumably all would be signed using the state’s branding system. Adrienne asked if they are branding recreational opportunities for all the towns along the rail trail. Doug said yes. Doug said he would like Adrienne to move forward with the map and not let the logos get in the way. Rail Trail Committee Meeting Minutes p. 2 November 19, 2025 Kim said the planning commission was exploring branding. She suggested bringing the logos to them and seeing if they have ideas on how to use them. She just wants to get signs up on the trail the way the state wants. Lynda asked if there is space on the Welcome Center to put just the logo, separate from the map. Jan said she thinks there is. Doug asked if Adrienne would put the main logo on the map on the Welcome Center. Adrienne said yes. Doug said he thinks that logo is all this committee needs to move ahead. Adrienne said she is trying to put together a branding system. Doug said if that takes several months he doesn’t want work on the map to wait for the action logos. Jan asked about Adrienne’s plan to get the branding okayed. Adrienne said she will present it to the selectboard. They already okayed the older logo. This wouldn’t cost the town any money. The consensus of the committee members is that they like the logo. Jan said she thinks Adrienne needs more information about what we want to show on the map. It will focus on the village. Kim said if it is 4x6 ft. it could include the whole town and a corner could show the village. Adrienne suggested we could also have the main map be the village, with smaller inserts showing things outside the village limits. Lynda said she thinks the village should be in the center, with smaller details in the corners. People will ride their bikes to Journey’s End or Prospect Rock if they know they are there. Kim asked why Lynda prefers that to a map of the town that gives all the relative distances to scale and has the village as a blowup chunk in the corner. Lynda said people will already be in the village when they are looking at the map, so that should be the main focus in order to get them down onto Main Street. That is where the majority will want to go. Doug said he really likes the map Jeffersonville did. They used an air photo. It lays out everything in the village. If we have enough space we can show attractions outside the village. He will send Adrienne the list of attractions the recreation economy task force had. It includes GPS coordinates. Adrienne asked if the committee wants businesses on the map or not. Personally, she thinks that is risky because they change. Jan said she thought we were thinking of having numbered circles with a legend telling what each represents. Kim said we talked about having them color coded by type of business. Doug suggested looking into what Jeffersonville did. Jan said there are two blowdowns on the rail trail that snowmobiles won’t be able to get past. Doug suggested calling Jackie Cassino. Doug said the LVRT Trail Friendly Business program is an economic program to bring traffic to businesses. The state will publicize it by printing pamphlets. There is a list of all the trail friendly businesses in Lamoille County. There are a lot in Stowe. Lynda said the rail trail doesn’t go through Stowe. Doug said that is right. Kim said her guess is that some people may be taking day trips and want to combine the rail trail and things in Stowe. Doug said we are being asked to do outreach to businesses. He has asked Tori Hellwig to send us information on economic benefits. He feels we need to go talk to businesses in person. Trail friendly Rail Trail Committee Meeting Minutes p. 3 November 19, 2025 businesses will be on a map on the web page and in pamphlets. They will get a cling for their window. He doesn’t think attractions should be included on the trail friendly map. That would be too much. He already went door to door and got 20 businesses signed up. Lynda said people might want to know they can go to the college and have lunch when they get off the rail trail. Doug said he has permission from the manager there to advertise that ability. He has been waiting for someone else at the college to get back to him about access to other college amenities. Kim suggested we could put a post on Front Porch Forum about the program but she would not suggest spending hours on outreach to businesses. Jan asked where we are with the lease with VTrans for the trailhead kiosk. Doug asked if Carl brought the lease to the last selectboard meeting. Donna and Adrienne said no. Doug said we need storage for the kiosk materials. Donna said Paul Warden may be able to store them. He said at the selectboard meeting that he would talk to Doug about it. Doug said we are awaiting the lease before we can put up the kiosk. In his opinion it should not be erected until spring. Both he and Carl thought we should hire a contractor to put it up. Doug asked for opinions on what color the metal roofing material should be that will go on the lower part of the Welcome Center. Committee members agreed to go with charcoal. Doug said he wrote to Holly Morehouse of the Vermont Community Fund to ask permission to change the use for the grant funds previously awarded for the bike charging station we decided not to get. He asked about using Vermont Community Fund money for our match for the Welcome Center work, for the additional cost for the stone steps above what we originally estimated, and for 8 other projects that are underway, which he listed. Holly called today to say that VCF okayed spending VCF grant funds on any of those things. We might not have enough money to do them all. Rosemary created a document showing that we have the entire $20K left from the VCF grant. It also shows our other income and where it has been spent. Doug said Tom Galinat asked him to send in the committee’s request for match money for the next fiscal year. Doug told him he wanted $10K if VCF approved his request to spend VCF funds on the projects we have planned. Some committee members questioned whether the town would agree to give us $10K more when we have $18K unspent from the current fiscal year. Doug said VCF asked how long we want them to extend the grant. He asked to have it extended until September and Holly told him they could extend it longer if we ask. Jan said today she talked to the owner of the 100 acres along the rail trail that is next to the 100 acres the town owns. He said he would be willing to talk about having camping on his property. The meeting ended at 7:25. Minutes submitted by Donna Griffiths