GORHAM â A half-year effort to help nonmotorized recreationalists more easily find in-town trailheads and other outdoor amenities is underway, thanks to $40,000 in federal grants that have been funneled through the Northern Border Regional Commission to the Concord-based Northern Forest Center.
Gorham is one of a number of âsub-recipientâ communities participating in a regional effort to attract outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy hiking, bicycling, paddling, snowshoeing, backcountry skiing, mushing and horseback riding.
The select board voted at its Mondayâs meeting, July 26, to accept the grant to build and install five new three-panel kiosks in high-need recreational areas and trailheads and two new single-panel kiosks at each end of Caseyâs Way, a multi-model pathway that starts on Route 2 and runs to the municipal airport.
GORHAM â New Trails Bureau Chief Craig Rennie of the state Department of Natural and Cultural Resources met on Monday evening with select board members Chairman Mike Waddell and Adam White as well as Town Manager Denise Vallee. Vice Chair Judy LeBlanc had said she would not be present.
Rennie was accompanied by District I supervisor Clint Savage of Gorham, who acted as interim chief for seven months after former chief Chris Gamache resigned. Rennie took up his new duties on May 21, after heâd left his post at the Department of Environmental Services Wetlands Bureau.
He met with Waddell earlier that day to discuss how very responsive ATV enthusiasts have been to the new riding routine. As hoped, ATVers have been parking above the black trestle on Route 16 and have not been loading and unloading them on the state-owned parking lot on Route 2.
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GORHAM â ATV traffic on Lancaster Road (Route 2) to the state-owned parking lot on the edge of the Presidential Rail Trail has been reduced substantially, reported select board member Judy LeBlanc at Monday eveningâs biweekly meeting on June 14.
LeBlanc explained that she lives in the
neighborhood in which many residents have complained they are badly affected by ATV enthusiasts off-loading and re-loading their OHRVs and gunning their vehicles as they speed off to reach Jericho Mountain State Park in Berlin.
Noise levels are also far less.
A short stretch of trail alongside the lot up the bridge that replaced the historic pony truss bridge was also paved by the state Trails Bureau, reducing airborne dust.
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RUMFORD – For decades, Rumford served as a poster child for the nightmarish pollution that turned the Androscoggin River into a foaming, dye-filled mess with fumes so awful they peeled the paint off homes.
It’s not like that anymore.
These days, there are trout, bass and beavers enjoying clear water in Rumford that’s becoming attractive to kayakers and canoeists.
But there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Rumford officials, like many along the river, worry that some are in such a hurry to declare the river is in better shape that they might impose regulatory measures that could stifle existing businesses, push up the cost of upgrading sewage treatment plants and prevent new companies from coming to town.