Rail trail stalls over MBTA lease

April 02, 2008
Danvers Herald
By Cathryn Keefe O’Hare

Opponents of a possible rail trail along the old railroad tracks including, from left, Peggy Reynolds, Stephen Currie, Janice Farrin and Katherine Keon. (CATHRYN O’HARE)

Danvers - Graffiti, destruction of property, litter and theft were the main concerns of residents who came to the selectmen’s meeting Tuesday night to question the wisdom of leasing some four miles of defunct railroad line from the MBTA.

Selectmen, however, while taking these comments into consideration, were immediately stymied by the lease itself, specifically, the actual geography it entails, the definition of the requirement to use the line for “recreation,” and whether or not the town could break the lease if environmental or other issues became too expensive.

“All of us are concerned about vandalism,” said Katherine Keon of Chestnut Street.

“When it’s opened up (taking out brambles, etc.), we have vandalism; when it’s closed, the vandalism goes away,” said Howard Reynolds, who said he has lived on Toomey Street since the late 1960s.

A number of residents talked about all-terrain vehicles that sometimes disturb their Sunday afternoons now and how much worse they would be if the line were more readily accessible.

And some selectmen and residents alike seemed displeased when Town Manager Wayne Marquis said the lease agreement specifically prohibits the town from “doing any sort of soil testing until the lease is signed,” calling into question whether environmental issues are significant.

“What are we signing up to do?” asked Selectman Keith Lucy, before selectmen agreed to table until no later than June 1 Selectman Bill Clark’s motion to authorize the lease agreement.

The MBTA has offered the town a 99-year lease at $1 a year for some 4.3 miles of land along the old Newburyport Rail Line, which runs through town from Wenham to Peabody and along another route to Middleton, said Town Manager Wayne Marquis.

It might make a bike trail possible and ultimately link Danvers to other communities in the Border to Boston area, as proponents like Selectman Bill Clark and Bi-Peds members Ingrid Barry and Matt Duggan hope will happen.

The town would also have more flexibility to access and reroute, if necessary, its electrical lines that run along the railroad right-of-way, said Marquis and advocate Selectman Gardner Trask.

“The town would be in a position to control these properties,” Marquis said. If the town doesn’t, then the MBTA could sell the land to a private party, he said, as almost happened with the Hobart Street parking lot before the town found private support for purchasing it.

Creosote had been applied to railroad ties and weed-killing chemicals had been applied to vegetation. The MBTA in the past wanted the various communities that leased old railroad lines in their communities to take on the total liability. Now it only wants the MBTA added to the municipal insurance policy, which will cost Danvers a couple of hundred dollars a year, Marquis told selectmen.

Town Counsel has looked over the new lease, Marquis said.

“No red flags jumped out at him from a legal perspective,” he said.

Some 3,500 linear feet behind Choate Farm and up to Route 97 in Wenham could be a good first “bite” for the town to develop, said Marquis, since the town already owns about 22 acres there. Rotary Club donated the small parking lot, which would provide access. In addition, land donated by Austin Clark behind Locust Street and abutting the rail line can be accessed from Carter Lane, Marquis said.

“It seems like we’re getting close,” said Selectman Lucy, since this particular area isn’t densely settled and does not have road crossings, which complicate matters.

However, questions remained.

The state requires that the town be “diligent” in pursuing funds to develop it for recreation, said Marquis, but Lucy didn’t know if developing just that Choate Farm area would suffice or if the town would have to develop the whole line.

If not “diligent,” the lease states the town would lose its reduced environmental liability, Lucy said, in which case, he asked what would that mean and cost.

State environmental laws usually require that if pollution is found, it must be cleaned up, Lucy said. Therefore, he wondered about “severability,” that is, a way out, or if the environmental clean up is just too costly.

The lease also seems to speak of land in Wenham, near the confluence of the town lines of Danvers, Wenham and Topsfield, Lucy said. The town manager was asked to have that language clarified.

After serving on the bike trail committee in 1998, both Clark and Bennett were in favor of getting on with it.

“I am a strong supporter of bike trails,” said Bennett, adding that private fundraising must be the financial tool for development.

Selectman Gardner Trask urged signing the lease, since it doesn’t commit the town to specific plans immediately and gives the town control of the land.

Selectman Mike Powers wanted to make sure there would be a process for citizen input, and favored delay.

Selectman Bill Clark was the most colorful in his support: “I hope I can leave my first term as selectman with the moniker ‘Bike Path Billy.’”

However, Clark, Bennett and Trask agreed to wait, but no longer than late May, for a final airing of the lease.

Bi-Peds founder Ingrid Barry, who sat through the discussion with a few other trail proponents and had spoken in favor, exhibited a magnanimous patience.

“Things move in infinitesimally small steps,” she said after the meeting. However, she indicated her perplexity at continued opposition: “It works in other communities, or they wouldn’t be adding to them.”