[onthebay]

I am a homeowner who will be directly affected by the WOW trail. It will run alongside my home and separate my property from my beach and dock on the other side of the tracks. This is land that is owned not leased from the state. I am currently working with the state to have a crossing put in to prevent being cut off when the trail goes in. Yes it will require RR warning and no trespassing signs. This is the state requirement.
Before I purchased the property I was made aware through disclosure that the WOW trail could be an eventuality. I cannot say that I wasn't forewarened. We actually thought that a proposed walking trail could be beneficial as we currently use the RR corridor as a walking trail to the Weirs and down to South Down shores. Having a graded (gravel or crushed stone)
path would be better than having to walk down the tracks where it narrows off.
The tracks are currently shared by joggers, walkers, fishermen, ATV's snowmobiles, snowshoers, cross country skiers, etc. and I have yet to hear of an incident where someone was unaware that the train also shared the corridor and was injured or killed.
I am not worried about additional foot traffic coming through. When we built our house we made sure that we left access through our land where an existing snowmobile trail branched from the tracks to the cove in back. It is not about keeping people out.
I am opposed to the trail as it stands because there is no reason to pave paradise. We had to go through hoops to put in a driveway. We couldn't put stone walkways in certain areas because they would cause runoff, I can't clear out branches in my back yard but they want to put down I don't know how many thousands of square feet of impervious surface (asphalt) that has oil, tar, and other petroleum products on the edge of the bay that supplies Laconia with drinking water. Not to mention an unsightly 5 foot chain link fence. Has anyone ever looked at how bad the fence that is along the WOW trail in Opechee looks?