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A Grassroots Effort to Revive a Community Resource February 2013
Erich Whitney has spent much of his life in New Hampshire. As an avid cyclist, he often uses the state's biking trails, including the Windham Rail Trail. Over time, the section of the trail that passes through his hometown of Derry, N.H., fell into disrepair. Whitney discovered that no specific organization was responsible for the upkeep of the 2.4-mile Derry trail section. Without needed renovations, the area would remain inaccessible to pedestrians and cyclists. So Whitney, with the help of other Derry residents, decided he would find a way to get the job done. He formed a non-profit corporation, called the Derry Rail Trail Alliance, to manage fundraising for the renovation project. Whitney, hardware engineer and group leader in MITRE's National Security Engineering Center, is president of the organization. "I started the Derry Rail Trail project because I saw an opportunity to turn a small piece of town land into a recreational resource not only for the residents of Derry but as a regional recreation destination," he says. Local television and newspapers had covered the project, so many residents were familiar with it by the time he sought additional volunteers. "When we decided that forming a non-profit was the best way to go, people came to me and offered to help," he says. Whitney and the other volunteers drew up a project proposal and engineering plans for the Derry town council. In response, the town allocated $225,000 of the project's estimated $380,000 cost. The town gave the group two years to come up with the remaining funds. The fundraising effort was bolstered when a local firm agreed to donate engineering services. The group also applied for grants across a number of different sources and held fundraising events in town. The construction project was ultimately broken into two phases. The town put out bids and the town engineer's office approved the engineering plan and managed the actual construction. "To manage grants and fundraising, we collaborated with other organizations around the state working on similar projects, including the Granite State Rail Trail Alliance," Whitney says. "Towns all across the region are also working on improving their local trails. We decided to think more broadly and formed a partnership with groups in Windham and Salem, and eventually went after federal grants as well." Though it resulted in "a tremendous amount of paperwork," Whitney says, the Derry, Windham, and Salem groups ultimately received a $1.2 million federal grant for work on sections of the trail across the three towns. Officially opened in June 2012, the trail extension now offers users direct access to parks, shops, and restaurants in downtown Derry. A Voice for Cyclists and Pedestrians In a related project, Whitney helped to establish the Bike-Walk Alliance of New Hampshire. "The idea was to provide safety and educational information and to have a voice for bicycling and pedestrian safety issues at the state level." To Whitney, all this work was—and remains—very rewarding. "Over time we've seen more and more people take advantage of this resource, including my own family," he says. With the completion of the connection to Windham, the Derry Rail Trail Alliance has set its sights on reclaiming the rest of the trail from the center of Derry north to the town of Londonderry. In Londonderry, residents have formed their own grassroots organization to complete the connection through to Manchester, which will connect to two other New Hampshire trail organizations' projects. And to the south, the Methuen [Mass.] Rail Trail Alliance recently completed its first piece of construction on the rail bed that connects to Salem. This leaves just a few small sections of the trail, including the Manchester and Lawrence Branch of the Boston and Maine Railroad, left to rebuild. "I'd like to get the message out that it doesn't take that much work to help your community out," Whitney says. "Sometimes when a need arises, you can ask who is going to do it, and maybe the answer is you." —by Maria S. Lee
Page last updated: February 5, 2013 | Top of page |
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