Hello, DCFT:
Just wanted to post a quick note to update those of you who haven’t been able to make it to any of our recent events. I hope this finds you all well and enjoying the leaves on one of our beautiful trails.
Ohio-to-Erie Trail Executive Director Jerry Rampelt spoke at our Oct. 17 meeting on his travels of the entire Ohio-to-Erie trail this summer. He has completed mapping the road routes along OTE where there is currently no trail, and on the newly redesigned website (www.ohiotoerietrail.org), you can use Microsoft Virtual Earth to zoom in on any section of trail and see those routes. I tried it out, and it’s good stuff.
Ted Miller of Preservation Parks and Matt Simpson of Floyd Browne and Associates provided a preview of the Delaware County Master Plan they have been working on. This plan should be available electronically sometime soon, and when it is, we will post it on our website. Ted and Matt are collecting feedback currently on the routes they have identified.
Dave Bender will let us know if further clearing will be needed to allow engineers access to the route for the next section of trail. It was also reported that our fund balance is just over $17,000, which is great news seeing as how we have $10,000 committed to the next section of trail.
The Delaware County Trails Forum that we co-hosted on October 24 saw great turnout. The first of its kind in Delaware County, some 40 administrators and officials from around the county took part n presentations on DCFT, the Trail Master Plan, MORPCs role in trail development, funding resources for trail development and trends in trail design. Andy Brenner was our gracious host for the day in the Hayes Building, and reported that the county has received final approvals from ODNR on our Clean Ohio Trail Fund grant and expects an RFP to be issued next week from the County Engineer's office.
It was really good to see so many people in the room dedicated to getting trails to be a regular development consideration in the county.
Mary Kerr and Barry Schumann were also there from DCFT.
Also, at the break there were five different kinds of cookies. I tried them all and would rank them as follows (from best to worse):
Oatmeal Raisin
Sugar
Chocolate Chip
Peanut Butter
Some sort of pecan thing
I know you needed that critical info.
Other Updates:
A number of developments arising from the Oct. 24 meeting of Genoa Township trustees where I presented a number of trail recommendations made by Genoa Twp’s Parks Board. Here are some of the more significant developments:
1) The township is looking in to extending the sidewalk(s) from Orchard Lake along Mt. Royal to the Genoa Trail to make the trail easier to access for those residents.
2) The Township is committed to making a trail connection along Africa Road to the Westerville System. This is great news for Highland Lakes residents, who will be able to use trail to access services in Westerville.
3) Trustees approved the purchase of solar-powered flashing caution signs to warn motorists of the presence of the trail at major intersections, especially the Mt. Royal/SR3 exchange, Lewis Center Road, and Freeman road.
DCFT’s Grants Committee will be meeting on Tuesday, October 30 at 6 p.m. at Panera Bread (Maxtown/SR3). MORPC’s Nate Vogt will also attend this meeting as we plan 2008’s run of grant applications. If you are interested in working on grants, please try and attend this meeting. Remember, at Panera, the refills are free. Last time I was there, I drank, like, seven cups of fruit punch. Talk about sugar rush. It was awesome.
Our final meeting of the year is set for December 19 at 7 p.m. It will be our final meeting at the Galena UMC. We will be electing officers for 2008 at this meeting. If you are interested in serving as an officer, please let me (peterwbrown@yahoo.com) or Jim Flaherty (jim@flahertylaw.com) know. Treasurer Michelle Miller will be resigning her post after two years of great service. Michelle has offered to make sure the taxes and whatnot get seen to appropriately next year, but if you are at all numbers-savvy, we need your skills for our treasurer position. And my personal and our collective thanks to Michelle for her work the past two years.
That’s all the updates for now. Thank you again for your time, attention and dedication to trails in Delaware County.
Pete Brown, President
DCFT's annual fund raiser, the Delaware County Community Ties Bicycle Tour, is set for Saturday, July 26, and will roll off from the Home Depot parking lot, 6017 Maxtown in Westerville. Supported rides of 40- and 75-miles are on schedule, as well as an 8-mile family fun ride with clues leading to hidden treasures along the way! The tour winds through several Delaware County communities with food stops, and provides a full post-ride lunch. 
