Rail Trail dispute
The Northern Rail Trail is wonderful. Between Boscawen and Lebanon you meet walkers, runners, bikers, fishermen, swimmers, birders and others enjoying the trail as much as you.
I was dismayed by David Brooks’ articles about the dispute between the State of New Hampshire, which owns and controls the Rail Trail, and abutting Andover landowner Leonard Caron, who recently blocked the Rail Trail with multi-ton Jersey barriers and who challenges the State’s authority to keep him from using it to get heavy equipment to and from his landlocked gravel pit.
I do not know who has the better legal argument, but there is at least one solution. The State could do what Caron claims the Boston and Maine railroad did when it owned the right of way that became the Northern Rail Trail. Offer him a year-to-year lease to access his land for the present value of the $200 that Caron says B&M charged him prior to its 1995 sale of the right of way, which is about $437, or for an equivalent value of his skills and equipment to maintain and upgrade the Rail Trail. The lease could specify the portion of the Rail Trail Caron would use, require that it be kept in the same condition as the two adjoining portions of the Rail Trail, and that users be adequately cautioned whenever equipment is crossing the trail.
This dispute could be settled out of court, saving tax dollars and relieving the many who use the trail.