Draft: Friends of the Chester Valley Trail

 

July 16, 2013                                                     East Whiteland Township Bldg. 7:00 pm

Presiding: Tim Lander                                         Board members present: Mike Broennle [arrived @ 7:13], Phil Hoke, Steve Warren.

                                                                        Others: Owen Prusack, Sarah Clark Stuart, Gary DiVincenzo, Gail Lipstein and others

 

1.  Minutes

    Deferred as Mike Broennle was late arriving.

2.  County Update: Park Superintendent Owen Prusack reported:

·       Warner Road reopened after construction of the trail culvert.

·       Valley Forge Road bridge is installed. Safety fence delayed. August 1 road closure to install fence.

·       North Valley Road bridge installation will occur with road closure on August 2nd through Aug 5.

·       Existing Swedesford Rd bridge fencing and painting scheduled for week of July 21st.

·       Phase II is about 86% complete. May be open mid/late September.

·       New bridge deck concrete needs to be poured, then 28 days to cure before use.

·       Soft opening likely in Oct.

·       Exton Phase IIIa. Exton Trailhead to Iron Lake Blvd: bid in the early fall, completion early 2014.

·       Double the parking lot size at the Exton Trail Head, add facilities.  Bid early fall.  Final paving of Church Farm Lane approved.

·       Directional signs for the SR 29 are in; may be installed by the end of this week.

·       Policy is being developed regarding use of powered vehicles.

·       Question from member of the audience:  Does private access paths need to be ADA compliant?

·       Tim Lander reported the new owners of the shopping center west of Contention Lane around Pathmark may seek trail access through the sound wall.

·       Discussions regarding parking at hhgregg are occurring.

·       Along Matthews Road the E P Henry retention wall buckled; may need to be redesigned.

·       Cedar Hollow crossing will have a manually initiated traffic light.  In response to a question whether it could be motion activated, municipalities generally oppose those devices as the municipality must maintain the traffic control devices.

·       No new information on the Phase II trail through Uptown Worthington.

·       Need to check with E Whiteland as to whether they would object to adding standing cross walk signs to those road crossings that do not have them, e.g. Bacton Hill and Mill Lane.  

3.  Circuit Coalition:  Guest Sarah Clark Stuart from the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia spoke about fund raising for the Circuit Coalition

·       The Circuit Coalition has a goal of increasing the current 250 mi of trails in the Delaware Valley to 750 mi over 20 yr, an effort estimated to cost $12.5 M/yr. 

·       Leveraging funds is a key principle of this effort.  For example Phase IIIa, completion for the CVT between the Exton Trailhead and Iron Lake Blvd is expected to cost $1M to construct.  Grants of $500K each from the William Penn Foundation and the PA Dept of Conservation & Natural Resources offset the required match from each grantor.

·       The William Penn grant gave $10 M to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission [DVRPC], dispersed in three cycles from 2011 through 2013 across the 5 PA and $ NJ counties in the Delaware Valley with the final grants to be announced on Sept 13.

·       The Coalition is asking the Counties via their Commissioner representative to the DVPRC to replenish the initial $!0M over 3 years from Federal Transportation funds.

·       Individuals can show support by signing the petition on Facebook and http://connectthecircuit.org/take-action.  Postcards to petition County Commissioners were passed out for completion and return; these will be presented to the county commissioners and those entering an email address will receive future email newsletters.

·       Letters of support are being sought from big businesses such as Vanguard and hospitals.  The documents can be downloaded at connectthecircuit.org.

·       In the future business donors will be sought.

4.  Trail signage

·    Bob O’Leary reported the county group working on historical markers is progressing.

5.  Board items

·    Transportation Management Association of Chester County [TMACC}

o        The board has decided to join TMACC.

o        A feasibility study of the Paoli-CVT Connector is underway; a public workshop was held on June 27 with several FCVT members present.

o        Two public meetings have been held on the design of the SR 29 / Great Valley Multimodal improvement plan.  

6.  Montgomery County

·    Bob O’Leary reported Montgomery County continues to work on plans for it’s portion of the CVT.

7.  New matters

·    PennDOT will soon be soliciting construction bids for the bike-pedestrian bridge across the Schuykill River in Valley Forge National Park.

 

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 pm.


Next meeting: Sept 17, 2013, 7 pm, E Whiteland Twp Bldg.

Respectfully submitted,   

 

Mike Broennle

 

9/17/13