Open Space Committee Meeting: September 9, 2025
7:00 pm Annex (large) and Virtual
6 Town Hall Dr, Princeton 01541
Published on: September 30, 2025 at 12:10pm
Last modified: October 26, 2025 at 7:35am
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“The listings of matters are those reasonably anticipated by the Chair 48 hours before said meeting, which may be discussed at the meeting. Not all items listed may in fact be discussed and other items not listed may also be brought up for discussion to the extent permitted by law.”
LIST OF TOPICS TO BE DISCUSSED
1. Approve Minutes from August 5
2. Quick Items
3. Trail Plan – Review/Improve work to date and Trail Ideas
4. Princeton Hikes
5. Other Business
Attending: Rick Gardner, Annie Charrette, Deb Cary, Laura Reynolds, Susan Downing, Phil O’Brien Excused: Brian Specht,
Meeting came to order at 7:05
Last month’s minutes were approved unanimously by the five members present.
Software for hike meetup tool was not presented as Brian Specht was not present. Rick may need to take this over.
Kids Hike Next hike will be in November. Annie to try re-branding as Family Hikes and include Rev Joelle in planning.
Environmental Action Committee, EAC meeting October 6. Deb and Rick to attend and share thoughts and ideas on Princeton’s environmental Issues.
MVP 2.0- MVP grant program was described. Briefly it is to support communities to build resilience to climate change. Rick was looking for a volunteer to be a Representative on the committee. The group present was interested in helping but not at the level of Representative/ 7 hours per month.
Hey Day will be October 4 10-3:00. Rick (10-12) and Phil(11:30-1:30) and Annie (1:00-3:00) will staff Open Space table. Phil to make a banner for Open Space to identify our table.
Trail Planning Document Rick and have done further edits that were discussed.
Rick to merge the DCR Trail guide/ best practice model for the Natural Resource section.
All to look at Summary of Action Items and edit as appropriate. Add priorities with comments.
Trail Updates discussed explorations from Mirick to Krashes field, Sharon Dr to Power Line Trail. Rick to show larger map with access to Nimrod, Johnny G, etc,
Rick checked in with all Trail Maintainers and all are on track! Need to recheck mid-summer maintenance of top of Mirick and top of Appell.
Rick also communicated with Trail Workers and this was a big success. This yielded 6 volunteers and they are working on: Boone, Appell West, Appell East, Peabody down to the dam, and Mirick top and bottom.
The landowner assignments were reviewed. OSC should write annually to make sure landowners are okay with trails and to keep them appraised of maintenance planned.
Rick reviewed the latest Princeton Hikes, all successful.
Discussed how to market the hikes for newcomers. Phil and Susan to work on ways to get more attention to the Hikes and Trails including Princeton Light Department. Deb to approach the realtors in town. Laura brought up the idea of advertising “20 and 30 year old only hikes” in Princeton.
Bench still needs to be moved to the “Grove” on the Goodnow Trails. Signs for Boone and Appell are needed. to write up the signs so they will be ready for next sign order.
Phil discussed an idea to add volunteers needed on kiosks. This could be linked to a QR code to describe what is needed: trail maintainers, etc.
Meeting adjourned at 8:33pm The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday October 14 beginning at 7:00pm.
Respectfully submitted, Annie Charrette