Reprinted from the Journal Tribune Online, March 1999

A walk through the woods

Supporters hope to connect path from Kittery to Portland

By GISELLE GOODMAN
Journal Tribune Staff Writer

SACO - When Rick Dube was a little boy, he used to travel the path behind his parents’ Route 1 motor court all the way to the Scarborough marsh, never realizing just how far that path could take him.

Now, at age 30, he knows the trail has the potential to lead him all the way to Kittery or Portland, and in the future it could prove to be a big benefit to his family’s tourism-based business.

Dube is planning on taking over his parent’s motel and cabins someday, and the Eastern Trail has a lot to do with that decision.

It wasn’t until recently that Dube found out the name of the path behind the property, which served as a railroad until the late 1800s. He also recently learned of an alliance working to make the now-broken trail into a continuous, low-impact throughway from Kittery to Portland.

For a long time now, connecting the 60 miles of the Eastern Trail and making it a viable bicycle and pedestrian passage has been little more than a vivid dream for members of the Eastern Trail Alliance (ETA).

Reconstructing the entire trail, which at points crosses over large bodies of water, busy roads such as the Maine Turnpike and virtually impassible woodlands, is an expensive venture. Just assessing the cost of the project is a financial commitment alone, but the ETA now has that cost covered, thanks to a $140,000 grant from the Maine Department of Transportation.

ETA Chairman John Andrews said it is the first real step in bringing the dream of the trail to fruition.

The alliance needs to match the MDOT funds with $28,000 of its own. To date the alliance has raised nearly $14,000 of that goal and Andrews is confident the rest can be raised.

With the money, MDOT will assign a group of engineers to do a mile-by-mile study of the trail. The work will begin once the local match is raised.

“This will take it from the realm of personal opinion to a professional engineer’s opinion,” Andrews said. “You need that opinion before you can go out and fund a project.”

Andrews said the MDOT study will also assess who owns different sections of the trail and what areas will need easements. The Granite State Gas Transmission Company, for example, has given preliminary support for granting the ETA an easement to run the Eastern Trail along the many miles of land owned by the company for its natural gas pipeline.

Andrews has been impassioned with the vision of the trail for more than a year and said he is delighted by the MDOT money.

“To have a project of this size taken so seriously by the MDOT and to have them put up this money is quite a compliment,” he said.

“It legitimizes what were trying to do here,” said Richard Roedner, ETA member and Saco’s city planner. “It gives the alliance the resources it will need to figure out how to complete the trail, where it’s going to go and how much we will need for construction.”

Roedner said it also goes to show that the MDOT doesn’t just see cars and roads as the only viable form of transportation, since the Eastern Trail will be used primarily for bicycles and foot traffic.

Dube is one of many who believe that the wooded trail, once connected, will be a tourism draw to the 12 communities that host the trail - as well as a benefit to those who live there.

“What the trail will provide is an alternative to the Appalachian Trail,” Dube said, pointing out that the Appalachian Trail has become a viable source of revenue for many towns along its path. “I strongly support (the Eastern Trail) and I think it is going to be a real positive thing for the community. It’s in the best interest of so many people.”

Dube said he’s also happy to finally have the opportunity to traverse past the Scarborough marsh, where his walks along the Eastern Trail have dead-ended so many times in the past.

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