CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS!
Halelujah! ARTinCC closed the sale on the Hunt Brothers property beside the Foxburg bridge Wed, Oct 13. It has taken many years to gain possession of this property and we’re excited to get to work. We would like to schedule our first work day on Thursday, Oct 21, 10:00 am, when a number of board members and construction committee members are available. As of now, there appears to be a significant chance of rain. We will postpone to Sat, Oct 23, 10:00 am, if we are rained out. The plan for the day would be to clear low brush and mark trees for removal from the bridge to the edge of Shoup Trucking parking area. We will inspect the grounds for large rocks, concrete, and metal debris which may present hazards to brush hog and tree removal machinery. Just as an aside, walkers along this stretch have reported poison ivy, so be prepared for that! If you can get away for a while on the 21st, join us any time. We plan to meet at 10:00am in the parking lot at Foxburg Pizza. Work as long as you can, come and go as you please. Please bring your weed whackers, shears and personal safety equipment. We hope to drag any metal debris to the open trail areas to be picked up and hauled to salvage. Any debris too large to move by hand will be marked with high visibility paint and removed later.If you have a truck and are willing to haul metal to salvage, you are welcome to keep whatever they pay.
Looking ahead to our next work days, we need some preliminary evaluations which we can do now. Certain requirements by DEP concern plant and wildlife species in our area of impact. Does anyone who has kayaked the river paralleling the trail have any comments about eagles or bats flying in the area. It is unlikely that you would see bats during the daylight hours, but we would be interested in knowing if you do. If you are familiar with tree identification, we need someone to inventory the trees planned for removal so that we can present that inventory to a tree removal enterprise. If you are in that business, or know someone who is, we would be interested in a discussion. There is an old warehouse next to the bridge which needs to be removed. If you, or someone you know is interested in salvaging what appears to be large beams and planks, let’s have that discussion.
If you arrive after 10:30 we will probably already be working. Find one of our construction committee and we will find some work for you. The construction committee members who may be present are: Doug Bell, Vern Kern, Stacy Ginkel and Denny Keyes. Our president, Bob Jennings will likely be present also. Watch for a announcement of a rain date.
VERY IMPORTANT – Please keep track of your hours. Inform one of the committee members your name and how many hours you worked. Volunteer hours are counted as part of our contribution to matching fund grants. In addition to the work you provide, your labor will help us get funding to pay for services that volunteers cannot provide. After more than 20 years of efforts, we are finally getting this trail underway. It will take time, but eventually, we will link Emlenton to Foxburg and Parker. Plans are already developing to link Parker to Upper Hillville and the Armstrong Trail coming through the Brady Tunnel. Let’s do this together !
