Rail Trail panel agrees to relocate three benches after Gun Club Lane abutters object

WESTON — May 10, 2021 — Weston Rail Trail Advisory Committee will rework its Gun Club Lane bench plan after abutters cite emergency-access crisis. Three residents of the private single-lane road — Mong Blancher and Barry Blancher of 52 Gun Club Lane and a resident of 68 Gun Club Lane — told the panel May 10 that emergency vehicles have responded to the area five times in three months, including for one death, and that the Weston fire chief has said trucks cannot make the approach turn when cars are parked along the road. The committee in November 2020 had approved six Weston 300-funded benches at four sites, including three benches roughly 180 feet west of the Gun Club Lane crossing; member Paul Penfield, on draft six of the DCR permission letter, will now scout alternate locations. "With the benches where they are, I understand the sentiment that you're not trying to make it a destination, but it will be a destination," Barry Blancher said. Penfield separately reported Phase 1 plantings now show 188 of 229 specimens alive — an 82 percent survival rate — and that Phase 2 was awarded to Belco Landscaping of Salem, N.H.