Two trail extensions proposed for Old Pound Road property

By NEAL RENTZ

The Old Pound Road Committee was informed at its Jan. 6 meeting that the Pound Ridge energy action committee’s trail subcommittee has a plan to use a state grant to create two trail extensions.

Nicole Shaffer, co-chair of the Energy Action Committee, said one of the proposed trail extensions would run along Westchester Avenue to connect from the area of the Town Park entrance to the Pound Ridge hamlet and such sites as the library and elementary school. “Our goal is to get people walking places as opposed to driving everywhere,” Shaffer said. 

The second proposed path extension would be a nature trail that would continue a town path to connect to the town-owned Old Pound Road property to the back of the Town Park. As required by the grant, the multi-use path to Old Pound Road must be 6 feet wide and compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, Shaffer said. The grant would need to be matched by the same amount of funds from the town, she added. 

The starting point to the proposals was work previously done by the Old Pound Road Committee, Shaffer said. 

Her group views the nature trail part of the proposed extended pathway as “the main route for everybody in the park,” Shaffer said. “I hope it works out. The devil is in the details.”

The proposal for the path to the Pound Ridge hamlet would feature guardrails along Westchester Avenue, Shaffer said. 

Old Pound Road committee co-chair Alison Boak said the proposals for the new trail extensions would be subject to a town board public hearing.

The grant was obtained by the Energy Action Committee trails subcommittee last year with the assistance of the nonprofit New York-New Jersey Trail Conference, Shaffer said at this week’s meeting. Her subcommittee showed the conference what the Old Pond Road Committee had done in its efforts to seek grants, she said. 

The final design for the proposed trails has not been completed, Shaffer said. “Things certainly could change,” she said. 

Shaffer said her group will be seeking another state grant to extend other town trails. “If we’re not showing enough progress, they’re not going to want to give us more money,” she said. 

The parking areas for those using the proposed two trail extensions would be in existing parking spaces in town or at the Town Park, Shaffer said. 

Boak asked if the committee was seeking to go out to bid to hire an engineer to design the project or to have town engineer Pitingaro & Doetsch Consulting Engineers do the work. Shaffer said the plan is to have the town engineer do the design. 

Shaffer agreed to the suggestion from Boak to have members of the trails and Old Pound Road committees, along with town engineer, Jason Pitingaro, walk the sites of the proposed trails to discuss designs in warmer weather. 

Boak said the purpose of the joint meeting with the trails committee was to “break down silos and to collaborate and figure out how to work together.”