DANVERS — The Danvers Rail Trail Advisory Committee is planning a New Year's Eve Day "leaf party" to clear leaves and debris from the trail, as efforts to make improvements chug along.
Volunteers plan to meet at the Hobart Street parking lot on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. to do some trail work. If you want to participate, please bring along a leaf blower or a rake, said Senior Planner Kate Day, who has been working with the rail trail committee on efforts to improve the new 4.3-mile recreation path through town.
These efforts include the installation of mileage markers, the building of bike racks and the submittal of a grant application seeking $70,000 from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation to finish the trail in Danvers and Wenham.
Both towns applied for the grant, Day said. The problem is, while a lot of work has been done to remove rails and ties, and build the path, there are still muddy areas north of Wenham Street. Also, stones that form much of the trail's surface are too large for wheels to pass over with ease.
The grant would pay for a compacted stone dust surface similar to one already installed along Topsfield's rail trail. This improvement would create a compressed stone dust surface for 7.6 miles from Peabody to Topsfield Center.
The grant would also pay to clear brush to improve the trail crossing at busy Route 97, where Wenham plans to install a crossing alert system, according to a memo of Rail Trail Advisory Committee activities that Day provided.
Even without state money, volunteers have been hard at work.
On Tuesday, volunteers and members of the committee assembled five bike racks at the home of Lori Dupont on Cabot Road, which abuts the trail. A grant from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council paid for the racks.
Volunteers are planning to install them at the trail at the Peabody line, Tapley Park, the Hobart Street parking lot and the Swampwalk, which is located along the trail about 1,000 feet south of Route 97. Plans are to install the final bike rack at Town Hall.
In November, volunteers installed mileage markers at 1/10th of a mile intervals along the entire length of the trail in Danvers. The markers were paid for by the Danvers Bi-Peds, a group dedicated to improving walking and biking conditions in town and major supporters of the rail trail.
The Rail Trail Advisory Committee is working on the final details of a sponsorship decal program for the mileage markers, Day said. Money from it would defray the cost of trail maintenance and enhancements.
Last week, selectmen provided another boost to the rail trail when the board granted a pedestrian easement to and from the nearby Danvers Indoor Sports complex at the southern end of the trail, making it easier for kids to access the facility from the trail.
Since the spring of 2010, the Nevada-based nonprofit Iron Horse Preservation Society, an outfit which converts abandoned railroad lines into recreation trails, built the trail at no cost to the town, with money coming from the salvage of scrap rails.
On Dec. 16, Iron Horse finished a section of the rail trail on a formerly muddy stretch south of the Danvers Agway on Wenham Street, Day said. The work will allow Danvers Electric Division trucks to access equipment, lines and poles along the rail trail in that area.
The next Danvers Rail Trail Advisory Committee is scheduled for Jan. 19 at 6 p.m. in the Toomey Hearing Room in Town Hall, 1 Sylvan St.
To learn more about Danvers Rail Trail, go to danversrailtrail.org.
Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or by email at eforman@salemnews.com or on Twitter @DanverSalemNews.
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