The Rails to Trails Committee hopes to have word in February whether it will be issued a general permit by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) for the construction of the North Brook Trail.
The town submitted its design to construct the trail to DEEP in 2024 but a change in direction at the state level drastically slowed things down. “This is on state land,” committee chairman Robert Gilchrest explained. “It is being revised internally to come from the state and not the town.”
The trails committee, which was formed in 2015, has “yet to build a trail,” said Gilchrest, who confessed to being “extremely frustrated.”
The committee received a $399,000 grant in 2023 for construction of the trail but so much time had elapsed by June 2025 that beaver activity had raised the water level and the 150-foot boardwalk designed to span the pools had to be increased to 275 feet in length. Portions of the bridge and the trail also had to be raised.
Gilchrest drafted revised plans and resubmitted them last summer.
“Since we started materiel costs have gone up,” he said, “and the status of the beaver activity has changed the scope to the point where the [original] grant won’t cover the cost. It was recommended by the state that we put in for another grant to cover the additional costs.”
An application for an additional $226,000 was submitted last fall to be included in the latest round of grants to accommodate the increases. The state will make an announcement sometime in March and the committee is feeling very positive about receiving the additional funding.
“Our goal is to go out to bid this summer,” Gilchrest said. “Once a general permit is released, we’re ready to pull the trigger.”
If the committee goes out to bid this summer, the work is expected to consume about four months.
The multi-use, handicap-accessible trail would eventually follow portions of the abandoned CNE railroad bed to connect Canaan, Norfolk center and Winchester.
Gilchrest said he has reached out to Norfolk’s representatives for help in moving the application forward. “I’m sure it is on someone’s desk,” he said. “I have cc’d all the [DEEP] departments, and I have an email thread 30 pages long.”
When the committee finally completes the North Brook Trail, it plans to move on to the proposed Woodcreek Trail, which will run from North Brook Trail south towards Shepard Road and the town center.