MethuenRailTrail

The Methuen Rail Trail has accepted a donation of these terrific granite boulders which will serve as landscape features and places to sit.

Big heads up thank you to the Methuen Credit Union and their developers.

We pulled a great deal of trash from the section south of Pine St and north of Five Corners bridge. No matter how much we clean there still seems to be illegal dumping in this area, no doubt due to its complete lack of sightlines. It’s an area in the downtown which is completely out of direct view of nearly everyone. With the construction of the Rail Trail this area will remain cleaner in future. Thanks to everyone who showed up.

railroad siding – a short stretch of railroad track used to store rolling stock or enable trains on the same line to pass.

While the abutters were cleaning the property around the 1856 warehouse and the Shady’s property, more rail was uncovered. The more rail stock we have the more work we can get done for free from Iron Horse Preservation. Yippee.

Sat April 16th – 10-12am : Information Table – at Healthy Kids Day
Location Methuen YMCA

Sat Apr 23, 2011 8am – 9am Rail Trail Cleanup
Location: The Corner of Union and Railroad St

Sat May 7, 201 1 8am – 9am Rail Trail Cleanup
Location: the End of Pine St

Sat May 7, 2011 9a m – 12am Methuen Clean Up Day
Location: Methuen.

Tuesday, May 10th, 2011, 7pm – 9pm – Methuen Rail Trail Alliance Meeting
Locaion: the Nevins LIbrary

Sunday, May 15th, 2011,  1pm – 5pm Salem Farmer’s Market – Shared Information Table with Salem Bike-Ped Corridor
Location: Lake Street Garden Center

Don’t Forget!
Annual Membership Meeting
Nevins Memorial Library
March 8th, 2011 7pm

Bring your Yearly Dues $10 and vote for officers!
Now that we are getting the lease from the MBTA we have a lot of work to do this year!

You heard it here first – the MBTA votes to lease the abandoned right of way to the city of Methuen for 99 years.

Thank you to all who helped and supported this effort!
We have a lot more work ahead! please come to the March 8th meeting!

MBTA Agenda item
• Authorization to enter into a Ninety-Nine (99) Year Long Term Lease Agreement with the City of Methuen, the Town of Saugus and the City of Lynn for nominal consideration for the portion of abandoned Manchester and Lawrence Branch Railroad Right of Way in Methuen, Massachusetts consisting of approximately 2 miles, a portion of the abandoned Saugus Branch Right of Way in Saugus consisting of approximately 2.4 miles and a portion of the abandoned Saugus Branch Right of Way in Lynn consisting of approximately 1.8 miles for use as an Alternative Transportation Corridor, a.k.a. Bike Path

1 Hour Cleanup
Sunday, 03 October 2010 at 08:00AM
Union and Railroad St intersection
Cleaning under the Oakland Ave Bridge again
Bring implements of destruction!

Bike/Walk on the Windham Trail
Sunday, 10 October 2010 at 1:00PM
Roulston Road Entrance to the Windham Rail Trail

It’s a bike ride and/or walk. Some will be bringing binoculars. The Windham Trail at that end is about 3 miles long. so it would be a 6+ mile walk both ways. Though it has nice mile markers and you can turn around anytime.

Thanks to all who showed up for our 1 hour cleanup. We sure did get a lot of junk off the trail. And as always thanks to the Vermette family for weedwhacking the last of the tall weeds – now the trail truly can be walked, run or cycled end to end. I hope to see you all at Tuesday’s meeting where we will pick a date for next months’ 1 hour cleanup.

Thank you to all who offered to help. The Spicket River was extra low last Friday and Tim and I just waded in and pulled out the offending materials. And this time we took it to the dump. There is a lot of trash along the banks in spots and hopefully we can keep pulling more out every opportunity.

For now we are going back to cleaning up the Rail Trail itself.
We have a cleanup scheduled for Saturday the 11th at 8 AM – we are meeting at the corner of Union and Rail Road so that we can pull trash out from under the Oakland ave Bridge.