Getting there from here

Scarborough receives $150,000 grant to study how to close a gap in a regional walking path.

John Andrews, president emeritus of the Eastern Trail
Alliance, stands where the Eastern Trail ends in
Scarborough, at the old Eastern Railroad bridge over the
Nonesuch River. Plans are under way to build a way to cross
 the river and close a 0.8-mile gap in the trail between
the river and the South Portland city line.

SCARBOROUGH — When John Andrews, 74, was a young boy growing up in Gardiner, he checked out every book on chess he could find at the Maine State Library in Augusta. That experience came in useful, he says, when it came time to piece together the easements needed to create the 69-mile-long Eastern Trail – a walking path designed to run from Kittery to Casco Bay.

“The principles of chess apply to building this trail,” said Andrews, while walking Saturday in a section behind Scarborough’s Hillcrest Retirement Community, where he now lives. “Easements are such wonderful fun, and getting them, like chess, is a kind of war, full of tactics and strategy. You don’t start right out and go after the king, you’ve first got to get this little piece, and then that little piece.”

Now, as president emeritus of the Eastern Trail Alliance, which he founded 14 years ago, Andrews is beginning to maneuver those pieces into checkmate. A $1.3 million bridge over Interstate 95 opened in August, and a 4.37-mile section of trail will link Saco and Old Orchard Beach “by Thanksgiving,” he says. That leaves just two small sections – in Biddeford and Scarborough – to finish the trail from Kennebunk to South Portland’s Bug Light Park. When complete, the Eastern Trail will mark a significant connection in the East Coast Greenway, a 3,000-mile-long trail linking Key West, Fla., to Calais, in Washington County.

The Scarborough gap, from the Nonesuch River to South Portland’s Wainwright Field complex, just over the town line, measures a mere 0.8 miles. But it could be one of the most difficult to build, given significant obstacles – in the form of rivers and railroads – that cross the path. Andrews says construction of that small slice could take up to three years and cost $3 million.

Last week, the Scarborough Town Council accepted a $150,000 grant that will get the ball rolling. Funneled from the feds through the Maine Department of Transportation, the money will pay for a study of how best to finish Scarborough’s section of the trail.

“We have to get over the Nonesuch, and that’s likely to be the easiest challenge, because we also have to get over the active Amtrak rail line,” said Town Manager Tom Hall, when advising the Town Council.

“The Downeaster runs up and down that several times a day,” said Hall. “Whether it’s a crossing that needs to be protected, or some kind of structure over or under the rail line, any of those options are complicated and costly.”

“Crossing the Nonesuch is not a problem,” said Tom Daley, director of the trail alliance. “The abutments from the old Eastern Railroad are still intact and even though they date to 1841, are still in great shape, as I understand it from talking to the engineers. So, that just requires a bridge.

“It’s crossing the tracks at Rigby Yard that will the real problem, maybe more expensive than when we crossed the turnpike,” said Daley. “MDOT has been very supportive of the trail, but railroad is not exactly the easiest people to deal with.”

According to Town Planner Dan Bacon, requests for proposal are being prepared by his office and “will be advertised in the coming week or two.”

“This [study] should put is in a very good position to apply for construction funds in the future,” said Hall.

While the state study grant did not require a local match, Andrews points out that “someone will have to come up with” local money needed when shovels and saws start to fly. Building grants typically call on a 20 percent match, Andrews said, or $600,000, if his $3 million estimate is on the mark.

“It’s got to be 20 feet in the air to clear freight trains,” said Andrews, “and it’s got to conform to Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines, which means a 5 percent grade. If you take 20 feet in the air times 100 feet long for every 5 feet of elevation, you’ve got a long ramp.

“There are so many people who need money, I doubt that the town of Scarborough is going to want to pay for that in its budget,” said Andrews, and, true to his prediction, some in town already are beginning to push back.

“I’ve been supportive of everything we can do to connect this trail,” said Michael Wood, during his last meeting on the council, “but I don’t think the cost of building bridges should be borne by Scarborough residents alone. I’d rather see a rope swing put up there.”

For Andrews, turning skeptics into supporters is all part of the game.

“If you have a truly great idea, nobody will ever steal it,” he jokes.

The “original vision,” cooked up by Andrews and his cohorts on Saco Bay Trails, was to repurpose five miles of the old Eastern Railroad corridor, from Route 1 in Saco to Pine Point Road in Scarborough. The rail was abandoned in 1944 and the route long forgotten, but trail enthusiasts in Saco, where Andrews lived at the time, saw a second life for the line. There were six people at the first meeting, including Daley of Scarborough, one person from Old Orchard Beach, and four from Saco. That was 16 years ago, long enough that Andrews can say of the Saco contingent, “most of them are dead, except for me.”

But the group had tapped into something that soon outgrew their first, humble goals.

“Here we were, a bunch old timers eating cookies and milk in a living room in Old Orchard Beach in December and by the following July there were full-page stories statewide about what we were doing,” recalls Andrews, adding with a palpable sense of wonder, “It was insane!”

Two years later, in 1997, the Eastern Trail Alliance was formally born. The first meeting was attended by representatives from the state, the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and the National Parks Service.

“Even then, nobody thought it could be done,” said Andrews. “It took a lot of convincing from a group that had yet to accomplish anything to build that first mile through the Old Orchard Beach railroad corridor.”

His first move, after lining up support from Saco city councilors and Conservation Commission members, was to approach the Appalachian Mountain Club for $500 to produce a brochure advertising the goals of the new alliance.

“I sat through their meeting, listened to their financial report, and decided to ask for $1,000,” he recalls. “And guess what? I got it. I then went to the bank and said, ‘Hey look, the Appalachian Club supports us. So, it really is one step at a time, moving the pieces around the chess board.”

Andrews does not pretend to have done it all by himself. There have been many people dedicated to the alliance’s success over the years. And, by 1999, the group had knocked down opposing forces to the point were directors of Saco & Biddeford Savings ponied up $10,000. That was the first piece of a $450,000, 2-mile build through Scarborough Marsh, completed in 2004. The process of “building relationships” led to a 2005 law change that freed railroads and utility companies from liability when allowing public access. That, says Andrews, allowed the alliance to secure permanent easements. Finally, Andrews was able to capture the Queen, so to speak, when Theresa Desfosses agreed to three-quarter-mile easement as part of a 175-home expansion of the Hillcrest Retirement property, even donating $60,000 for trail work.

“That’s been one of the nicest pieces,” Andrews said, of the many easements he’s negotiated over the years. “But I don’t spend too much time thinking about our accomplishments. I spend most of my time thinking about the 40 miles we haven’t built yet.”

To that end, the Eastern Trail Alliance is meeting informally this week with residents of South Berwick, in an attempt to build grassroots support there. Meanwhile, because most of alliance directors live in the Scarborough-Saco area, the group has moved its meetings beginning this month to the Wells Town Hall, to increase visibility in York County.

“I have crusaded for all kinds of things,” says Andrews. “I enjoy taking on challenges and I’ve had just enough successes that I won’t quit. It’s all one step at a time, moving pieces around the board.”