TO:                        Mayor William F. Martin, Jr.

                                      And

                             Members of the Lowell City Council

FROM:           Bernard F. Lynch, City Manager

DATE:                     April 20, 2007

SUBJECT:                Council Motion of 4/3/07 by Councillor Rodney Elliott

“Request the City Manager contact the State Delegation relative to the application filed with the DCR by NEMBA for the creation of mountain bike trails in the State Forest.”

_______________________________________________________________________

Please be advised that I have been in contact with Matt Coggins, DPD Director, regarding the above mentioned motion.  Matt stated that the Division of Planning and Development spoke with Kathryn Garcia, NE District Manager for the State Forest.  She has indicated that there is a conflict between GLICA (Greater Lowell Indian Cultural Association) and NEMBA (New England Mountain Bike Association) over the use of some trails through the State Forest.  Tom Libby, representative of GLICA wants some trails closed due to the damage they are causing to some of the "botanical elements" of the forest that DCR is trying to protect.  DCR basically agrees with closing some of the trails but is also proposing to create new trails (some would actually link existing trails into a loop) and has indicated that in the end there would be no net new trails.  Bob Gunita of NEMBA is in support of DCR's plan - GLICA is not!  Kathryn has told both parties that DCR will not move forward until there is agreement on both sides of the issue.  That may happen at a meeting of the "Friends of the Forest" to be held on April 26th

at 6:30 p.m. in the Clark Auditorium of Lowell General Hospital!  We will have DPD staff members present.

If you have any questions regarding this information, please let me know.  Thank you.