The city-internal section of the trail provides a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly connection between downtown (with a starting point at the city`s transportation center), the Dover Middle and High School campus, and Bellamy Park. The trail follows an old railway bed through much of the city and provides public access to protected green spaces along the Cochecho and Bellamy rivers. Click here to see The Trail reached an important milestone in 2011 with ribbon cutting at the Trailhead kiosk at the Transportation Centre. By this time, most of the trail was complete. In late 2014 and early 2015, the city applied for a grant from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation`s Alternative Transportation Program. The objective of the grant was to complete the last part of the trail, from Fisher Street to Central Avenue at the south end, and the connection between Downeast Energy and Beckwith Park in the central part. The city received a grant of $320,000 in mid-2015. In collaboration with the Community Trails Advisory Committee, staff hired an engineer to design the final elements. Interested in the trail? Please join the Trail Advisory Committee on the 1st Tuesday of the month and contact Erin Bassegio for more information. The Dover Conservation Commission and the Open Lands Committee have focused their land conservation efforts along the Bellamy and Cochecho rivers. The community trail will allow the public to access these greenways. Portions of the greenway and associated road network between Fourth Street and Watson Road have been acquired through the purchase of land, negotiated with landowners or are in the process of being formalized. In 2016, employees applied for funding for the next round of TAP funding to add further expansions to connect the Rutland and Central Avenue Trail to Knox Marsh Road, via the middle and high school complex and Bellamy Park.
Check out the rough map and general idea here: Phase IV Map. Since the mid-1990s, the City of Dover has been actively planning and acquiring rights of way for a community trail project. The Dover Master Plan recommends a community trail to provide both recreation and alternative transportation for the citizens of Dover. If you would like to tidy up or resume a section of the trail, please email Erin Bassegio. The first part of the trail that was built connected the Dover Transportation Center (station) to Fisher Street. Ultimately, this portion of the trail will be connected to Highway 108 (Central Avenue/Durham Road) near the intersection with the Spaulding Turnpike (Phase III). The trail follows the bed of the former Newington Branch Railway between and parallel to Locust Street and Rutland Street. Since this part of the trail is located near the Belknap, Fisher, Cushing and Folsom street neighbourhoods, the city has convened a citizens` advisory group to provide feedback on the design and use of the trail to reduce its impact on the grounds. The operation of an ATV on private property is only legal if the owner`s permission has been granted. The use of an ATV on a road is illegal unless crossing the road is illegal. It is illegal to use an ATV on a beach, swamp, cemetery or cemetery in Maine. It is legal to operate an ATV on most state and municipal property.
Initial Funding for Trail ProjectA federal traffic improvement grant was requested in 1999 under the auspices of the Municipal Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The project was approved in 2000 for 80% of federal funding, and on June 21, 2000, a municipal agreement was signed to manage, design and build the first portion of the trail between the transportation centre and Highway 108. Funding for the local game was provided by the TIP portion of the City`s Capital Improvement Program. Local funding for the trail came from the city`s TIP revenue fund, which is based on fees levied by motor vehicle registrations, not taxpayers` money. Another source of money for the acquisition of land and rights of way was the Conservation Fund. The money in this fund comes from the change of use penalties imposed on developers when they remove undeveloped land from the current use program. Protecting natural habitats or green spaces along the Cochecho and Bellamy rivers has been a goal of the Dover Master Plan since the 1970s. With the establishment of a conservation fund in 1999, the City of Dover has provided a source of money to actively protect land of significant value to natural resources, either through the purchase of land or through development rights (through the use of conservation easements). The decision is a victory not only for the ACLU, which led the legal challenge, but for all those who consider it appropriate and unconstitutional to promote a particular religious belief at the expense of our children`s education. Rural extensions of the trail offer opportunities for cycling, hiking, bird watching and fishing, where the trail follows the Cochecho and Bellamy rivers. Part of the trail runs parallel to Sixth Street and provides an alternative transportation link to Liberty Mutual, Measured Progress, and other Enterprise Park employment centers.
Despite their involvement in these organizations, school board members still claimed that smart design was not a religious opinion. Barbara Forrest, Ph.D., an expert in intelligent design and co-author of Creationism`s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, has undermined such claims. The Community Trails Advisory Committee usually meets on the first Tuesday of the month at 5:30 p.m. in the conference room on the first floor of City Hall. For more updates, follow us on Facebook: Dover Community Trail. The plaintiffs testified that they observed such religious motivations through the Dover Area School Board. Beth Eveland, one of the plaintiffs, said: “I remember Bill Buckingham saying, `2,000 years ago, someone died on a cross.
