Southampton Board Accepts State Offer to Fund Rail Trail Gap Design and Permitting
Other Committee · Meeting of July 28, 2026
EAST HAMPTON — Southampton Select Board accepts state offer to fund full Rail Trail design at no cost to the town. Kurt Gartner, Assistant Secretary of Environmental Policy at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, presented Monday alongside a team from Stantec and Brown, Richardson & Row, offering to pay for the full design, permitting, and construction-document work, estimated at roughly $115,000 for the preliminary phase alone, needed to close a nine-and-a-half-mile gap between the existing Southampton Greenway and the Columbia Greenway in Westfield. The board agreed informally to move forward cooperatively with at least two public meetings planned, with a preference for one in person.
In a separate matter, Town Clerk Lucille Dalton told the board she would "prefer that you don't" run a concurrent special election in November to fill the board's vacant fifth seat, citing the significant cost and staffing burden of separate ballots, separate mailing, and matching early-voting obligations, leaving the vacancy to the May 2027 annual election. The board also approved the hiring of Brian Foy as a part-time COA van driver at up to 18 hours per week, fully reimbursable under the town's FRTA grant.
In the full story:
- Background and stakes
- The question before the board
- Substantive content
- The deliberation
- Procedural steps and outcome
- Implications and what is next
- The complete report — 3,429 words
Source: the Other Committee meeting of July 28, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
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