As the early morning sun tried its best to penetrate a gloomy overcast sky, the group of close to 60 people celebrated the handing over of funds from the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.
The $110,000 raised is to be used on a 0.6 mile stretch of old railroad track to extend the trail to the Concord city line.
In front of a display check to commemorate the occasion on Friday, speakers – including Gov. Chris Sununu – took turns giving thanks to all those who helped make the rail trail extension possible.
“You just knocked it out of the park,” said Sununu. “There’s so many pieces that have to come into play to make a project like this happen. The public-private partnership here, that’s the model that really does work.”
It was a long process for the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail to get here. Years of work went into planning and fundraising for the purchase.
“You have to build momentum,” said rail trail board member Jack Shields. “You have to start with a little-by-little step.”
Shields said the culmination of all the fundraising, planning and organizing was immensely gratifying.
“It’s a big deal,” said Shields. “I started this thing in 2018. It was a dream. It was when I first joined the Friends of the Northern Rail Trail board, and I realized this section wasn’t done. I just put it on my shoulders and said ‘I’m going with this.’”
Shields initiated a fundraising campaign that received major donations from the Grappone group, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, Northeast Delta Dental, Friends of Bob Spiegelman and three anonymous donors. Along with the major donations, 90 smaller private donations came in through a GoFundMe campaign.
The Northern Rail Trail traverses 59 miles of the state, ending in Lebanon. Was all that work and money really worth it for less than a mile of new trail? The answer is a definite “yes,” according to Stephen Rasche.
“It’s always a great thing to take a great trail and make it a little bit longer. But the real significance here is that right where the Northern Rail Trail is going to end is where the northern part of the future of Merrimack River Greenway trail will begin,” said Rasche.
The City of Concord and state of New Hampshire are currently in talks to purchase 6 miles of track that will run from the southern end of the Northern Rail Trail to near Horseshoe Pond.
“When that’s done, we’ll have about 65 contiguous miles of trail from close to downtown Concord all the way to Lebanon. That’s a great thing,” said Rasche.
Rasche worked alongside Shields to get this project up and running. He said the two had slightly different attitudes on the process.
“One of the things about Jack is he’s very optimistic and his enthusiasm is unflagging,” said Rasche. “I’m not that way. I’m pessimistic. I had gotten so discouraged by how long this took. Without Jack, we wouldn’t be here. So big, big thanks to Jack.”
Rasche remarked how the Louisiana purchase took just 11 months but a sixth-tenths mile stretch of former railroad track took over a year and a half. He hopes that future progress on the Merrimack River Greenway Trail will gain momentum from this purchase so things can be done quicker in the future.
“The Merrimack River Greenway trail, they’ve been working on that for eight or 10 years. So it’s frustrating how slow that goes, but they just keep plugging away,” Rasche said. “It’s amazing just how many people are involved.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story’s headline insinuated that Northern Rail Trail now owns the land. The Friends of the Northern Rail Trail gave funds to the state for the state to acquire right-of-way to the land.