Grant Would Allow Canton, Simsbury to Look at Farmington River Trail Completion Options

Pending selectmen’s approval, Canton may join Simsbury in applying for a grant that would explore the feasibility of completing the Farmington River Trail loop.

The Farmington River Trail is designed to be an 18-mile loop, built on old railroad bed, that connects to the Farmington Canal Heritage Trail  in Farmington and Simsbury. The Canal Heritage trail in turn is part of the mutli-use Maine to Florida East Coast Greenway initiative.

Farmington is working on a portion of the Farmington River trail now and Canton recently completed a portion from Collinsville to Best Cleaners on Route 44.

The grant would cover a feasibility study and preliminary design of the continuation of the trail. The study would look at options for extending it the final two miles from Route 44 to Simsbury, said Chief Administrative Officer Robert Skinner.

That portion of trail presents some challenges such as the questions of rail bed easements, loss of parts of the bed to development and other issues. The study would look at those issues and other potential ideas such as utilizing state and town-owned property or constructing a trail along the roadway, Skinner said.

“The feasibility study would look at all that,” Skinner said.

Cost of the study would probably approach $100,000, Skinner said. The federal Surface Transportation Program Urban Grant would pay for 80 percent of the study.

Since 1.25 miles of the 2-miles of trail in question is in Canton, the town would presumably be responsible for a little more than half of the remaining 20 percent, Skinner said.

Simsbury's Board of Selectmen has voted to apply for the funds.

If Canton selectmen voted to apply for the grant during their meeting Wednsday night, and it was awarded, they would also vote whether to accept it before spending any money.

“Clearly it’s something that’s worth exploring and we have to make the commitment to accept the grant if it’s awarded,” First Selectmen Richard Barlow said.

Barlow said he’s also asked town planner Neil Pade to investigate the possibility of the town receiving bicycle friendly status.

That would come from the League of American Bicyclists. There are different levels of recognition and the process would involve a look at the town’s engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation of bicycle networks, use, maps, outreach, safety and other factors.