An informational meeting will be held during a scheduled Grants Committee meeting on January 25th. The informational meeting will shine some light on incorporating the borough’s trestles into part of the county-wide trails system.
It was last year when I first wrote of possibly using the trestles as part of a trail system and obtaining grants for such a project. While I addressed the trestle spanning Spring Street, owned by West Easton, an additional trestle that spans Iron Street may also be involved. That trestle spans the border of West Easton and Wilson.
Representatives from Northampton County’s Open Space Initiative, The Wildlands Conservancy, D&L Trails System, and a Grant Writer from Barry Isett & Associates will be providing information to Committee members from West Easton and at least one Council member from Wilson Borough.
Following an invitation from me, Wilson Borough Councilman Scott Palinkas confirmed he will attend, because a plan has been developed by D&L Trails that involves a path through both West Easton and Wilson Borough.
Our two boroughs hope to obtain information on exactly what the plan entails, the costs associated with it, and how the trestles would be incorporated. Both communities would desire the bulk of funding to be provided through grants.
In mid-December I reached out to two members of Wilson Borough Council, meeting them for coffee. I informed them of a possibility in obtaining grants for trails and the existence of a plan that involved both communities.
If both West Easton and Wilson agree to pursue developing the trail, obtaining grants would have a better chance of success as a joint municipality project that county level organizations would endorse and also consider additional grants available to them for such projects.
It will be at the meeting next week, that committee members from our respective councils should discover exactly what the D&L Trails plan is and the costs involved in obtaining any available grants. That information will then be provided to our respective councils.
The cost of addressing the trestles, whether they are removed, repaired, or their use re-adapted one day, has been a can kicked down the road for decades. Though they were inspected by the Commonwealth about two years ago and found they required no immediate removal, they will continue to slowly succumb to the elements and will eventually have to be addressed.
Disclaimer: On January 4, 2016, the owner of WestEastonPA.com began serving on the West Easton Council following an election. Postings and all content found on this website are the opinions of Matthew A. Dees and may not necessarily represent the opinion of the governing body for The Borough of West Easton.
