By Nate Jones

Staff Writer 

After working with the West End Trails Committee, a subsidiary of the South Portland Land Trust, for more than a year, South Portland resident Richard Berman said he was glad to have granted an easement for a 1.5-mile section of trail near the Maine Mall area that was completed last week.

“It has always been a vision, we’re just trying to accommodate that,” he said. 

Berman represents a number of independent developers that joined forces to form the Developer’s Collaborative, a “smart growth promoters” group, he said. Berman said he would encourage other property owners to assist the West End Trails Committee in their mission to create a trail that could connect Portland International Airport to others trails in Portland from behind the Sable Oaks golf course.

“It unifies neighborhoods, improves property values, creates community and it creates an amenity,” Berman said. “It even helps fight obesity, I could go on forever.”

West End Trails Committee Chairman and South Portland City Councilor Tom Blake said the 1.5-mile section of completed trail is currently accessible through the Old English Village development off Westbrook Street, a situation that will change in the future. One of 10 pump stations in the city behind Wild Willy’s restaurant is scheduled to be rebuilt within the next two years, at which point a trailhead will be constructed to access the newly completed pathway, he said. 

“If this was a sausage it would be the middle link,” he said.

South Portland Land Trust and West End Trail Committee member Richard Rottkov said other trail sections have already been built along Clarks Pond, Red Brook and Long Creek using funds from $30,000 in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) revenue. Blake said in addition to the TIF funds, the group received a $2,000 grant from the Rails to Trails program last year. 

“We haven’t used it all yet,” Blake said. “It takes a fair amount to pay for supplies to build new bog bridges and make repairs to existing trails.”

Rottkov said the funding is also used to pay workers from the Maine Conservation Corps, a subsidiary of the Maine Department of Conservation, who blaze, clear brush and build any necessary structures such as bridges, benches and barriers, along the trails.

“In some cases volunteers can come help build,” he said. “Usually for bridges and things that require a little higher level technology we use groups such as the Maine Conservation Corps.”

The West End Trail Committee may leave the physical labor to the Maine Conservation Corps, but Blake said working to obtain easements from property owners is no small feat.

“There are always a series of issues you have to deal with,” he said. “If we’re talking to a ‘mom and pop’ store it’s usually a piece of cake. When dealing with national chains you seldom talk to the same person, that’s a real problem. And then you deal with the attorneys.”

Blake said landowners are typically concerned about liability associated with having a trail on their property, although there are state and local policies in place to protect the organization and property owners. Rottkov said in addition to increasing land value, the presence of trails could result in increased security for business owners. 

“Having these trails traverse densely populated areas could improve safety,” he said. “We’re looking at having one trailhead toward the airport, which could trigger homeland security concerns, but there is the argument that people using these trails and being around will make the area safer.”

Rottkov said the group is likely to begin construction of a trail along Jackson Brook that could connect Hannaford by the Maine Mall to Home Depot next year.

“The farther along we get, the more complete our vision map gets, the more people will say ‘Yes’ [to easements],” Blake said.