/ NH Railroad Revitalization Association
July 25, 2005

Tonight’s meeting was called to order by Peter Griffin at 7:00 PM at the Concord YMCA Conference Room.

Attendees:

Name / Town
Peter Griffin / Windham, NH
Steve Flanders / Weare, NH
Stephen Piper / Somersworth, NH
George Katsakiores / Derry, NH
Mark Richardson / Bedford, NH
Dick Joos / Hopkinton, NH
John Palmer / Derry, NH
Gus Sheedy / Derry, NH
Winthrop Buswell / Loudon, NH
Matt Cosgro / Nashua, NH
Richard Cosgro / Nashua, NH

Peter introduced and welcomed Matt Cosgro and his father Richard. Matt has been recruited to help develop the NHRRA web site into its final form.

Minutes

Steve Piper noted the May 23 minutes should have included the establishment of a committee to review the existing NHRRA Constitution and Bylaws. Tom Noel, Bill Johnson and Steve Piper will review and make recommendations for updates and corrections. The June minutes were accepted as written.

Treasurer’s Report

Steve Flanders reported an account balance of $3362.05. No expenditures have occurred during the last month while $98 in dues have been received.

Website

Mark demonstrated the latest revisions to the site via laptop. He expects the new version will be available for public consumption on August 1 and this will include a discussion forum (for members, public and media to share ideas), advertising banners, links to other rail and environmental websites and a quick process for communicating with elected officials (users will simply print a composed letter, sign and mail).

Bylaws

Steve Piper brought forth the current language of the NHRRA Constitution and Bylaws with many suggestions (as compiled by the committee) for amending inconsistencies and updating to reflect current policies. These suggestions were handed to President Griffin and Treasurer Flanders as Executive Board officers present for review and comment. S. Piper will e-mail a copy to Representative Currier. At Peter Griffin’s suggestion, one copy will be forwarded to Bronwyn Asplund-Walsh (NHRRA legal counsel) and one copy will be forwarded to Bill Remington (first NHRRA President and an original founder of the organization).

Lowell-Concord Promotional Train

Peter met with David Preece (Southern NH Planning Commission) today and with Manchester Mayor Bob Baines last week to discuss interest in running a promotional train from Lowell, MA to Concord NH. Both agreed that this would be a great idea and would like to see it happen. The benefits would result from a high degree of media exposure as many VIPs (Governor’s office, Executive Council, regional planning commissions, state and local officials, chambers of commerce, existing rail owners and prominent business leaders from all along the corridor) would be invited to participate. A tentative date would be targeted for the end of October pending cooperation by Guilford Rail System and MBTA. A preliminary meeting with the media should take place in September to generate publicity for the event. What is unknown is what this event would cost and who (or what business) would be interested in sponsoring it.

High Speed Rail

Although NH has been delaying their contribution towards the 2nd phase of the Boson-Montreal High Speed rail study, $85,000 has been earmarked for just this purpose. Former Governor Benson’s administration curtailed most discretionary funding for those two years, but now Governor Lynch has the opportunity to support this expenditure. Reports indicate that the real (NH) cost of this study will likely be closer to $17,000. Vermont and Massachusetts have both made available their portions of the study cost. Upgrading the corridor for commuter rail from Concord southward will only act to reinvigorate support for the Boston-Montreal initiative, but it is imperative that the line be rebuilt to support the higher speed initially rather than for 60 MPH now then again for high speed later. This should be discussed during the Promotional Train event.

Winthrop Buswell

Winthrop had discussions recently with Ed Jeffrey (President of NH Central Railroad) to promote the NHRRA. Win also read a letter he is composing to send to Senator John Sununu on funding for rail.

Win’s art work web site is up and running and now contains a short narrative on revitalizing New Hampshire’s railroads with a link to the NHRRA web site. He maintains his offer to contribute a portion of the sales receipts from his railroad prints to the NHRRA.

Other Business

Several positive rail related articles have surfaced recently, two of which have already been distributed to the membership electronically (and will be included with these minutes to US mail recipients). Others will continue to be distributed as they come forth.

The Governor’s Advisory Committee on Intermodal Transportation (GACIT) has delayed discussing the proposed rail upgrades in Dover and Newfields again until October.

Lyman Cousens will be holding a meeting at the Plymouth Senior Citizens Center on September 9 for the purposes of promoting rail as part of the I-93 upgrade. The guest speaker will be Tom Irwin of the Conservation Law Foundation and all NHRRA members are invited to attend.

The Singer family has presented plans to rehabilitate an old railroad bridge in Goffstown to connect two existing rail-trails.

George is still planning to introduce a bill to create a sustaining fund for rail. He plans to attend three national conferences on transportation to gather ideas from other states. Tonight’s discussion led to possibly naming the bill to include “rail/intermodal” for wider acceptance by the Legislature.

Peter mentioned that the consultant for the I-93 route upgrade is expected to be chosen this week.

Steve Piper noted that Downeaster ridership and revenue have been on the increase over the past few months.

Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM

Next meeting: / Monday, August 22, 2005 at 7 PM
Concord YMCA conference Room
15 North State Street, Concord
Minutes by: / Stephen R. Piper - Secretary