Weston Rail Trail Committee Votes to Fence Historic Cattle Passes for Safety

WESTON — April 23, 2018 — Weston's Rail Trail Advisory Committee approved fencing of two 1891-era cattle passes and rejected portable toilets for the trail at its April 23 meeting. The committee voted unanimously to direct a member to contact DCR site representative Paul Janicki about extending slope-protection fencing around the iron-stringer cattle passes near Gun Club Road, which members said pose fall and contamination hazards to visitors; general contractor Lawrence Lynch's site supervisor Peter Kelly was said to concur with the assessment. The committee also voted unanimously against placing portable toilets on the trail, citing maintenance, vandalism, and the trail's short length of roughly four and a half miles. A resident complaint over Conant Road parking was resolved through the police chief, who has authority to install temporary no-parking signs without a Selectmen's vote. A DCR partnership matching grant with a June 29 deadline is tied to a planting plan and a roughly $78,000 Town Meeting appropriation still pending approval.