Get all the latest – there’s lots going on, including the latest news on the Polly Ann Trail
In case you haven’t read the alert about the Polly Ann Trail, please do.
Polly Ann Trail Meeting Update
Thanks to all of you that showed up at the meeting. I estimate that there were between 30-40 people there, mostly equestrians. The Polly Ann Trail Management Council confirmed several items: (1) All parts of the Polly Ann Trail are open to horses, even the parts to be asphalted. (Whoopee, we are all excited about that.) (2) The trail is 12 feet wide with a crushed limestone surface except for two l ¼ mile asphalt sections in the Villages of Oxford and Leonard, which is also 12 ft wide with a 1 ft shoulder on each side… (3) No accommodation has been made for the horses to get from the Staging Area in the Village of Leonard to the part of the trail that is crushed limestone. Riders should also ride this crushed limestone section with care, however it is safer that asphalt and somewhat more friendly for horses. (4) A parallel horse trail was placed in the master plan in 2004 (Before that it was merely talk at the council level and a motion to expect the trail was passed by the PATMC in March of 2003. (5) The council voted 5 yes to 4 no to let the Polly Ann Equestrians use their own donation of $5000 under a special equestrian account within the PATMC treasury for horse related items. (6) There is no funding to put in a parallel horse trail at this time, as the council passed a resolution that the next money received would go to Orion Township for their two miles of the Polly Ann Trail. (This is only fair as they fund most of the Polly Ann Trail. (7) The Polly Ann Trail Management Council passed a motion to allow equestrians or volunteer board members to solicit a bid on building the horse trail from the staging area past the asphalt, so riders can use their staging area. The PATMC, as mentioned above, has no funding to put the parallel trail in, which includes the bidding process, or looking for donations or grant money for this portion of the trail.
Where does that leave us? Out in the cold as usual. Hopefully a safe route around the asphalt in the Village of Leonard will become a reality, with the equestrians help, and equipment (if available), as the village plans to allow roller blading and skate boarding on the l ¼ miles of asphalt in the village. This also poses a problem for the horse friendly part of the Macomb Orchard Trail that plans to connect to the Polly Ann. Someone in the know did not look out for equestrians even though discussions indicated that they would be accommodated. We will continue to investigate ways to mitigate these circumstances.
If you are working on a trail, be sure you see everything is writing, especially look at the fine print and ask what initials on the drawings mean. The asphalt portions of the trail were labeled with the letters “hmaâ€, which means hot melted aggregate, a.k.a. asphalt. The letters were so small that people couldn’t read them. Do not take promises only in words, as we have seen what can happen on a trail that is primarily a horse trail through rural Addison Township.
Headwaters Trail, Inc.
We had our successful Ride the Rose and Cruise the Connector on August 28th. We earned in excess of $1000. Comments were very positive and we look forward to horses being included in Rose Oaks County Park when the master planning process is complete. Please look for public hearings on Rose Oaks County Park and be sure to show up and indicate your interest in horses being allowed in that park. You must show up or for sure you will be left out and sometimes even when you show up. Put your fine print glasses on when dealing with governmental units of any kind.
Headwaters Trail, Inc. also has an on going fund raising project. They have an on going paper/magazine/phone books drive. So please save all this up and deliver it to their drop off Location in the Village of Holly. The drop off location is on the north side of Holly Elementary School. From East Holly Road (Maple Street), go north on Park for 1 block and then turn right or east on Elm Street, turn into parking lot by old bus garage. You will see a large green recycling container that is prominently marked. The latch is on the side. Please place your papers, etc. in paper bags and place them as far as you can in the front of the recycling bin.
Oakland Equestrian Web Site:
We have a new web site format and hope you all like it. Our webmaster has us coming up within the top three hits on Google. There is a place to make comments now also. You need to register before you make a comment or ask a question, but no one will approve your comments.
In order to keep our website up to date and interesting, the webmaster is spending much more time. She has donated the last year of services, but I feel that it is time to start paying her something. Therefore in order to raise money to keep our communication going, we have instituted a classifieds section. Please visit the tab to check out the rates. I know lots of you have boarding facilities, training programs, and other businesses. Please think of placing an ad for a year. We get lots of questions about places to board horses in Oakland County. I have taken the time to suggest ones I know of, but I only know a small part of the county. For a small price, you can support the Oakland Equestrian Coalition and help your business. Also we offer one month ads if you are trying to sell an item or need an item.
We can use your help. Hope to see lots of activity in the Classified soon.
The web site will also in the near future feature an automatic email of any information posted. You will need to sign up for this. Your email address will not be accessible to website users nor sold to anyone. Look for this feature soon.
Please remember to forward this update to anyone you think might be interested. It will be up on the web site within a couple of days.
Paving of Local Roads:
The Road Commission of Oakland County has recently released a list of road paving projects for the Strategic Planning Process Report. The proposed projects for western Oakland County were published in the September 28, 2005 Spinal Column on Page 11. If you live on any of the dirt roads that are proposed for paving and use these roads to get to horse trails, be sure to get together with your local government to request trails alongside the road. If you don’t use these roads for access, then you needn’t worry about the paving projects. I’m sure other parts of the county were also included in this report, just not published in my local paper. Contact the Road Commission of Oakland County and ask for this report if you are interested.
Merle Richmond, Coordinator
Oakland Equestrian Coalition
Here are some Oakland Equestrian needs that we must address.