Minutes, March 27, 2006

Dutchess County/Putnam County AT Management Committee
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference
Minutes of 195th Meeting
Monday, March 27, 2006 7:00PM East Fishkill Library – Cross room

Attendance:  Ron Rosen, Jane Geisler, Jim Haggett, Walt Daniels, Gerry Richardson, Ollie Simpson, Al Posil, Connie Burrill, Steve Klauck, Frank Dogil (10).

The meeting came to order at 7:05 PM. Jim explained the committee’s purpose and function to those attending.

• The following FYI and FYA items were circulated.

FYA items:

• “A Trail to Every Classroom Summer Institute” July 11-15, 2006.
• Chainsaw Safety Workshop & Wilderness First Aid training.  Geared for CT and Berkshire folks, but seats may be available

FYI items:

• “Appalachian Trail Vital Signs” technical report
• Summary of 2005 SCA boundary work
• Ralph Ferrusi Catskill book published
• History of water test results

1. The minutes of the 194th meeting, held January 16, 2006, were approved as published. The minutes for this meeting can be found on the web at http://www.nynjtc.org/committees/trailscouncil/at-committees/DP/agenda/index.html.

2. Committee topics, short updates, etc.:

• Relocation plans (Nuclear Lake, Harlem Valley State Hospital, Long Hill Rd, and Depot Hill Road [north]) –Jim Haggett explained that the HVSH relocation is the largest one, and we are now scheduling work trips. Jim suggested a trail building trip on National Trails Day, Saturday, June 3rd.

   The relo on Depot Hill will be about ¼ of a mile. Walt will GPS the route and present the relo to Trails Council on April 6th. Jerry will lead a work trip on Tuesday, 4/11, meeting at 8:30 AM at the DEC Parking Area.

ADK on April 29 and 30 will be doing a work weekend. Ollie will be removing debris from Hiller Brook, and shoring up some of the banks. Jane will be working with DEC Urban Forester Lou Sebesta and Dutchess County Highway at the West Dover Road Oak Tree (to prevent parking over the roots), and plans to add a large volume of wood chips in order to block parking near the tree roots. Jane and Jim explained that the West Dover Oak is second in NY State as a champion tree.  ADK will also install a kiosk/bulletin board at Route 22.

• SCA interns for 2006 (Ron). After discussion, we changed the dates for the two 12-week SCA positions (pending SCA approval). The plan is for one 12-week person to arrive 5/21 and finish 8/12, and the other one to arrive 7/22 and finish 10/14. The 22-week person will arrive 5/14 and finish 10/14. All three positions have similar job descriptions: (1) boundary maintenance, (2) sidehill trail relocation in HVSH, (3) bulletin board creation and installation.
• Mitzvah Day project (Sunday, May 7th): Ollie will consider helping that day. We discussed possibly doing the Stewart shelter reproofing as part of that project. Ron will check to determine what project we listed and email the info to others.
• Bulletin Board replacement (Walt, Jim)—we decided to put the next three boards at Route 22, Route 9 at 403, and at Depot Hill Road.
• Hiller Brook (Jane, Jim, others): We are still on track for helical pier boardwalk, probably for 2007 or perhaps 2008. If we consider moving the trail to the north, we would need more land.
• Trail workshops past & future (Jim, Jane): CT AMC is having a chain saw class at the White Memorial in Litchfield CT May 6, and a Wilderness First Aid course April 8 and 9. The last class was attended by three D/P volunteers, Ollie Simpson, Steve Klauck, and Peter Hoh.
• Update Dutchess/Putnam AT brochure: The last edition is now six years old. There will be a variety of small changes. Jane Geisler has suggested putting mileages on the map, and clarifying some of the wording on the regulations that apply to the lands and the trail. Jim sent a note to the CT/AMC people to get an idea of the monetary contributions required to get sponsorship billing.
• RPC Meeting held March 11 (Walt): Walt described the meetings. The subcommittees had mixed results (some hadn’t gotten going yet…). The Education and Outreach Cmte had done a significant amount of work. The next meeting will be in November, and we will be hosting it (probably at Graymoor), and this is planned as a two-day meeting. Walt reported that ATC has a new staff person updating the local management planning guide. Walt has a copy of the updated version.
• Water Testing status (Jane, Gerry, Jim)—we will try to add this to the SCA project. Jane took a sample at Wiley last Tuesday (3/21), and hasn’t heard results yet. Jim has started to regenerate a running tally of all the tests that have been done (From prior meeting minutes), and accumulate the information in a spreadsheet. We briefly reviewed the spreadsheet as a work-in-progress.
• White oak & parking DC 20 crossing (Jane, Jim) - Discussed earlier, see above.
• Update prioritized project list – as time allows (we will hold to the end and either start or do this at the next meeting).
• Next meeting: will be June 5th. Ron will schedule at NHRC (Library was booked for our planned date of May 22).

• Reports:
• Area Supervisor Summaries:

Walt Daniels got a call that someone put “No Trespassing” signs on South Highland road. Walt investigated and removed about 10-12 signs.
Jim Haggett reported a break-in in the RPH cabin—someone pried the latch off the door and got inside. The cork bulletin board had papers that were ignited, and melted the cork, and sooted up the walls, but no other damage was done. This happened sometime in late February.
No new news on the Liahonna Trail. Gerry commented that there was a lot of winter hiking based on the Morgan Stewart log, including some overnight use. Trail is in fine shape in that area.
The relocation in Nuclear Lake was opened this past weekend (by Jim, working for three days—mostly working on the side trail). Jim was in that area last Wednesday, near old Route 55, and Jim stumbled upon a tent nowhere near the trail, some items on a rope, and paths worn in the area. There were bags of garbage there as well. On Saturday, there was a man in the tent talking to himself (angrily). He did not respond to Jim calling “hello” from a distance. Jim contacted Todd Remaley (NPS ranger), and Todd will have NPS ROVA Park Police get rid of the person.

Jane Geisler talked with Gerry, noting that an eagle scout candidate from the Millbrook troop was interested in reproofing the Telephone Pioneers shelter, but we don’t think this really needs doing yet. The Millbrook scout troop is interested in doing trail work in the area, including reblazing the side trail to the shelter; we will consider having the troop be the shelter maintainer for TP shelter. Jane has already filled us in on her project list (above).
Jane mentioned that Hurds Corners bridge (on Yegella Farms) has somewhat collapsed, and work will be done by the Pawling Scout Troop.
There is still a wet area in the Pawling Nature Reserve. Jim will call Don Owen to determine what environmental work would need to be done prior to either turnpiking or boardwalk for this area.
Jane and Ollie reported on finding an individual in a tent (on a cold wintry day) just west of Swamp River. His left-over materials were still there a couple of weeks later, and they left a note warning the man to get his materials out. Two weeks later, Jane and Ollie removed the goods.
At Deuel Hollow Road, Jane and Ollie modified the parking beside the road to encourage parkers to stay near the Cemetery.
The “turtle guy” [Mike Musenicht], has discovered a fen, south and east of the Oak Tree, in the wetland to the south of our bridge [going North from the tree on Corbin Hill]. He wants some help in monitoring that area. Walt indicated that we should report this finding to Kent Schwartzkopf at NPS.
Jane asked about tools.

Frank Dogil  had no additional info.

• Other reports:  None
• Chair’s report:  Jim had nothing additional to report.

4. Adjourned at 10:00

Submitted by Ron Rosen, with post-processing by Jim Haggett

V3 Last updated: May 31, 2006   Copyright © 1996-2005  New York-New Jersey Trail Conference Privacy Statement.