The 32nd Annual Meeting of the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail was held on Monday, June 11, 2018, at 6:00 pm, in the colonnade of the Washington Episcopal School, located at 5600 Little Falls Pkwy, Bethesda, MD 20816. Thanks to Dan Vogelman, Head of School, for offering us the meeting space.
Notes from the Annual Meeting:
Special Meeting. The board held a brief special meeting to authorize the transfer of $81,772.05 to the Montgomery Parks Foundation to continue and complete the River Road Park. The motion was made and passed.
Welcome. Ron Tripp, President, welcomed the Members of the Coalition, Elected Officials, Partners in Government Offices and Agencies, and other Supporters of the Trail to the Annual Meeting and thanked individuals by name for their support.
Election of Board Members. The current board members were re-elected: Ron Tripp, Jenny Sue Dunner, Frank Linton, Mike Hunninghake, Morris Klein, Tony Marra, Lynn Balzer-Martin, Scott Snyder, Ed Comer, Polly Choate, and Pam Godwin. Will Strang, current webmaster, also agreed to become a board member and was elected to the board.
Guest Speaker. Jack Koczela, incoming Chair of the Capital Trails Coalition (CTC) and Co-Chair of Recreational Trail Advisory Committee in the District of Columbia, was the Guest Speaker, along with Katie Harris of WABA. Jack reported that the Mission of CTC is to create a world-class network of multiuse trails that are equitably distributed throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. 400 miles of trails already exist and 275 more miles are in some stage of planning. Ron Tripp requested CTC’s help with monitoring trail plans and construction beside the new Purple Line, and Jack agreed.
Reports. Montgomery County Park Development Division Chief, Michael Ma, provided a status update on the River Road Park. Board member Mike Hunninghake’s Bells-n-Whistles status report mentioned that five events were held, and about 300 bells were given out to bicycle riders on the CCT.
Questions, requests, and suggestions from the public included:
- Advocating to County officials for ones’ interests, such as repaving the CCT, is important, as much is underfunded. CCT Repaving is in the CIP. Repaving width will be 12 ft.
- Placing signs along the trail naming the cross streets
- Reviewing all signage along the trail
- Developing an app for the trail similar to the C&O Companion App
- Making a new map of the CCT, both paper-based and app-based, improving the current Google Map overlay
- Needing to reduce speeding by some bicycle riders, which threatens pedestrians
- Creating a CCT Volunteer corps like the C&O Volunteers to slow down the bikes, assist with whatever, remind people to leash their dogs, etc.
- Patrolling by Montgomery County police more frequently to reduce bicycle speeding
- Wondering about the status of e-bicycles, including their legality on the trail, ‘motor’ vs ‘motorized’, handicap plates, etc.