Author: Larry Glantz

Portland Press Herald, Letters, Posted August 26, 2016

It’s summer on the coast of Maine, and there’s no better time of year to appreciate the value of the Eastern Trail.

For those who aren’t already frequent users, the Eastern Trail system traverses 65 miles between Kittery and South Portland. It’s part of the larger East Coast Greenway that aims to connect Maine to Florida – a trail project that has been in the national headlines recently, including features by Conde Nast and the Huffington Post.

In Scarborough, the Eastern Trail is an incredibly valuable asset that is used by a wide cross-section of our population, from residents to tourists. They can view the state’s largest salt marsh, watch birds or ride the trail corridor, and the number of trail users is increasing annually.

Given how valuable the Eastern Trail is to our residents, visitors, economy and overall quality of life, the town of Scarborough – in partnership with the Eastern Trail Alliance, Bicycle Coalition of Maine and Maine Department of Transportation – has been working tirelessly to design and fund a plan that would close the final 1.6-mile gap in the trail and provide an off-road linkage of the Eastern Trail in Scarborough to the Greenbelt Trail in South Portland.

This linkage would be the capstone on the Eastern Trail in this area and would create a continuous 16 miles of off-road trail corridor from Bug Light in South Portland all the way to downtown Saco.

At this point, Scarborough, South Portland and our regional and state transportation agencies (the Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System and MDOT) have generously collaborated to commit $3 million of the $3.6 million needed to complete this regionally significant project. This leaves about $600,000 in necessary funding for which we are seeking donations in order to close this critical gap.

Help us make our section of the East Coast Greenway a reality.

Dan Bacon

Read the entire letter online.

The news segment ran on Monday, July 18th. You can view the segment online here (the part about the Eastern Trail starts at the 3:39 mark).

We are thrilled to have spent a day on the Eastern Trail with WCVB Channel 5 Boston and Chronicle on WCVB Channel 5! The Boston television crew explored southern Maine and featured a few cool things to do when in town. The TV crew interviewed the Close the Gap Campaign Communication Director Diana Ichton Nelson with several of the ETA Trustees coming along for the ride.

The web page for the show is here. The video for the show can be viewed online here (the part about the Eastern Trail starts at the 3:39 mark).

[News Flash – The ETA is leading a major fundraising campaign aimed at the critical “missing trail link” addressed in this article. Go here to learn more]

WGME-TV (Channmel 13), May 6, 2016

SCARBOROUGH (WGME) — There’s a push to “close the gap,” at one of Maine’s most popular foot and biking trails.

The Eastern Trail extends for 65 miles from South Portland to Kittery, but a key piece is missing in Scarborough.

There is a 1.6-mile “gap,” which interrupts anyone trying to take the trail along one of its more populated stretches.

The cost to close the gap, which would include two bridges, is about $3.8 million. Almost $3 million of that has already been raised, but there’s still more work to be done, organizers say.

The trail includes scenic woods, tidal marshes and classic Maine villages, and it’s part of the larger East Coast Greenway, a series of trails and bike-friendly roadways stretching all the way to Key West, Florida.

View the TV news clip here.

Tune in to this video clip by ETA President Emeritus John Andrews and Trustee/Naturalist Joe Yuhas, produced as part of the Great Maine Outdoor Weekend…..

“Close the G a p” is the theme of the Eastern Trail Alliance’s annual meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, May 25 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at the Clambake Restaurant in Scarborough.

This year’s Guest Speaker is Jim Tasse, Assistant Director of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine.

All are invited – more information on this page.

Please RSVP by May 15 by calling 207-284-9260 or by email to Nancy@easterntrail.org

A postcard promoting the meeting can be viewed here.

Kate Irish Collins, kcollins@keepmecurrent.com – May 19, 2016

The final push is on to raise the remaining $1 million needed by the end of the year to build two new bridges on the Eastern Trail that would close a 1.6-mile gap between Scarborough and South Portland.

Construction of the bridges, one over the Nonesuch River and one over the Pan Am railroad tracks near Pleasant Hill Road, has been a goal of the Eastern Trail Alliance, which maintains and operates the trail, for more than a decade, according to Carole Brush.

The total cost of the bridge projects is $3.8 million, Brush said. Of that amount, $2.8 million has been raised through various funding avenues, including from the communities of Scarborough and South Portland, as well as the state and federal governments.

So far, Scarborough and South Portland have pledged a combined $70,000 toward the bridges project, with the trail alliance seeking another $216,000 from the town of Scarborough. The money is included in the town’s proposed 2016-17  budget, which the Town Council is scheduled to vote on Wednesday, after the Current’s print deadline.The 65-mile Eastern Trail in Maine extends from Kittery to Bug Light in South Portland and is part of the East Coast Greenway, which spans 2,900 miles from Florida to Maine.

Construction of the two bridges between Scarborough and South Portland would actually create a new, 16-mile section of off-road travel for the Eastern Trail, Brush said. The Maine Department of Transportation said closing the trail gap between the two communities is one of its highest-priority recreation projects.

The Eastern Trail was created 16 years ago, and since then millions of people have used it to bike, run and walk through many of southern Maine’s most scenic woods, tidal marshes and traditional New England communities, according to the Eastern Trail website.

The urgency about raising the remaining funding needed to build the two bridges is that if the $1 million is not raised by the end of the year, the money pledged by the Department of Transportation may be diverted to other projects around the state.

With that possibility in mind, Tom Hall, Scarborough’s town manager, said, “Timing is critical because we’ve raised the majority of the funds, but time is (now) running out.”

The project is in the final stages of design and is on schedule to start construction in early 2017, according to Brush.

“It’s critical that the project start (as planned because) we don’t want to risk the funding being diverted to other projects,” she said.

Hall agreed.

The article continues – Go here to read the entire article online.

By Michael Kelley Staff Writer

With Army Corps of Engineers and Maine Department of Environmental Protection approval in hand, it’s a “critical year” for a long-term project to connect the Eastern Trail….

between the Nonesuch River in Scarborough and the Wainwright Farm Recreation Complex in South Portland.

So says Scarborough Town Planner Dan Bacon.

“Completing this corridor would finally connect Scarborough, Old Orchard Beach, Saco and points south all the way to South Portland and Portland,” Bacon said at a town council workshop last week.

Although only 1.6 miles long, making the connection between the two communities has been, according to Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall, a “daunting task,” in part because it requires building bridges over the Nonesuch River and Pan Am Railways tracks.

Bacon said finding a connection that works “without bumping into” private property has been challenging. Thus the proposed trail alignment follows a Central Maine Power corridor by Pleasant Hill Road before heading toward Prout’s Pond toward South Portland and eventually into the Wainwright complex. An alignment that passed by the pond prior to joining Highland Avenue and Gary L. Maietta Way was ultimately scrapped because of safety concerns for trail users.

The challenge at hand now is funding the roughly $3 million project, including the costs of the Nonesuch River Bridge ($75,000+) and railroad bridge ($700,000 to $1 million). The northern stretch – approximately 4,200 feet from Wainwright to Pleasant Hill Road – has been funded thanks to a grant from Portland Area Comprehensive Transportation System (PACTS) and local shares from Scarborough and South Portland. Funding for the southern half, which includes the two bridges, is still up in the air, but PACTS and the Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) have promised to fund sizable shares.

“The DOT sees this as the most important bike/ped project in the state right now and has dedicated almost half of the funding because of that feeling,” Bacon said.

The DOT has committed $1.5 million to the project and PACTS has committed another $650,000. The local share of the project from Scarborough and South Portland would be $216,000, meaning another $700,000 would have to be raised from other funding sources.

Despite the funding situation, Bacon said, “we are certainly much closer than we were.”

Bacon said officials are “courting organizations like Hannaford, Iberdrola (CMP’s parent company) and Cianbro for funding or in-kind donations.

Read the full article online here.

The Eastern Trail Alliance (ETA) was featured on the Derek Volk Show on April 9, 2016, broadcast on News Talk WLOB (100.5 FM / 1310 AM).

Derek interviewed Scott Marcoux of the Alliance, who spoke about the mission of the Alliance, and also in detail about the this year’s upcoming Maine Lighthouse Ride. The Maine Lighthouse Ride is the chief fundraiser for the ETA, and will be held this coming September 10.

The entire interview can be heard here.