04/19/2008
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Staff photo by Joe Phelan from the Kennebec Journal
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Opportunities along Bond Brook to create hiking and biking trails.
Opportunities to preserve old-growth forest for future generations.
Opportunities to show local kids the unique ecosystem of the Great Sidney Bog.
These Friends of Augusta Outdoors, as they have called themselves, also envision ways to draw visitors to the city -- to hike and bike and spend money in local stores and restaurants.
Augusta residents David Gomeau and Mike Seitzinger and City Services Director Leif Dahlin pitched the creation of the new Friends group to the City Council on Monday as a way to raise funds to help create and maintain recreational opportunities on undeveloped, city-owned land.
"We're talking about taking city lands and converting them into recreational opportunities," said Seitzinger, who also is a member of the Augusta Charter Commission.
A new trail system "would give Augusta residents great opportunities to exercise and be healthy, opportunities for social development, opportunities for economic development," Seitzinger said. "This could help make Augusta a destination."
A new trail system "would give Augusta residents great opportunities to exercise and be healthy, opportunities for social development, opportunities for economic development," Seitzinger said. "This could help make Augusta a destination."
City government can't conduct fundraising, but the Friends group could.
"It's a huge economic tool, waiting for us to start using it,' said Gomeau, a former city councilor and former city arborist. "We'd like to see a group of people working hand-in-hand with the Conservation Commission. But this group would have the ability to raise money."
Rex Turner, of the Augusta Conservation Commission, is also a key member of the group, but was unable to attend Monday's meeting.
Interest in green space is growing.
In just the last year, the city has added 336 acres to its open-space inventory, Dahlin said.
That includes 166 acres near the heart of the city. The land, which runs along Bond Brook, was purchased for about $160,000.
One existing, but hard-to-spot trailhead providing access to the Bond Brook area, is on Bond Brook Road about 150 yards from its intersection with Civic Center Drive.
A log-and-steel bridge crossing the waters of Bond Brook is about a 100-yard walk from the road.
Even that close to the road, traffic is barely audible over the gurgling Bond Brook, providing a tranquil setting interrupted only by the sound of occasional airplane traffic at nearby Augusta State Airport.
Trails used by ATVs and snowmobiles already lead into the site.
The new land in the bog is connected to another 100 acres of land the city already owns.
The city also already has access to about 100 acres around the Augusta State Airport and Public Works Department, 200 acres on Pleasant Hill off Route 17, which is popular with ATV users and hunters; and 118 acres off Leighton Road, gained through environmental-mitigation requirements of the developers of The Marketplace at Augusta.
City Manager William Bridgeo said the city has been awarded a $29,000 grant from the Federal Highway Administration to help pay for trails along Bond Brook. Selective timber harvesting from the city's woods could also help pay for improvements.
The Conservation Commission has already been holding public meetings to solicit input on how best to use the Bond Brook land, and a plan to likely create trails on the land is being developed.
"There is a fair amount of space out there, we have to decide what to do with it," Dahlin said. "We acquired it; now we have a responsibility. A fair amount of what we're planning will require a fair amount of resources to pull it off."
That's what Friends could be for.
Keith Edwards -- 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
In just the last year, the city has added 336 acres to its open-space inventory. Some of the city's top open-space holdings:
n 166 acres along Bond Brook, purchased recently for $160,000
n 100 acres on Great Sidney Bog, purchased recently for $15,000
n 70 acres behind Central Maine Commerce Center, portions recently donated.
The city also already has access to:
n 100 acres around Augusta State Airport
n 200 acres on Pleasant Hill off Route 17
n 118 acres off Leighton Road, gained via mitigation requirements of The Marketplace at Augusta.
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