Written by Nathan Cloud on Monday, 28 Jun 2010.
IMPORTANT UPDATE!
The venue for th July 20th meeting has changed from Maxim Road to the West Hartford Town Hall Auditorium!
50 S. Main Street, West Hartford, CT 06107
In the spirit of brevity, the goal of this editorial is to point everyone over to here:
http://www.savethemdctrails.org
However, in case you want to keep reading...
What is this "Save The MDC Trails" organization?
They are "a group of like minded citizens with the mission to keep the MDC properties open to the public".
What's the deal?
As many of you know, the MDC is considering shutting down the West Hartford Reservoir for public recreation. Back in 2002, someone collided with a gate and succesfully sued the MDC for 2.9 millions dollars. In a legal nutshell we have this:
- The reservoir is operated by the MDC, which is a "non-profit municipal corporation"
- They are nice enough to open up their land for public use
- Some sort of legal loop hole or oversight made it so entities like the MDC are not afforded any immunities to personal injuries on their properties
- Someone was injured on MDC property, sued, and won
- The MDC, after having to pay out 2.9 million, understandably has to consider closing down their properties for public use.
At least that is my birds eye understanding of what is happening.
What needs to happen?
As stated on the Save The MDC Trails website, "We need to convince our State Legislators to close the liability loophole".
How you can help.
Pretty simply, go over here and educate yourself: http://www.savethemdctrails.org
Be sure to check out the What can I do to help and petition pages.
Lastly, drop Charlie an email and have him add your person and/or organization to the Friends page.
What's Next?
There is a Public Hearing on July 20, 2010!
"The Water Bureau will hold a public hearing on closing the MDC properties to recreation July 20th, 5:30pm at the Maxim Road Facility Auditorium at West Hartford Town Hall. For maximum impact we need to fill/overfill the meeting room to show how important keeping the Res open to recreational activities is to us."
For more information, visit here.
I have no idea what this West Hartford Reservoir place is!
If you ever pedaled a bike in Connecticut this is unlikely!
Easily one of the most popular Connecticut mountain biking destinations! It is a beautiful place and it would be a shame for the public to lose access to.
Photos of West Hartford Reservoir
I will be attending, I don't really care about the rez other than the fact that it provides some relief to the other local trail systems . If this place closes it will hve a negative effect on places I do care about so I need to show my support.
It is a shame. Too bad MDC's job is to provide drinking water and not recreational space to mountain bikers who wish to sue them for their own recklessness : "The mission of the MDC is to provide our customers with safe, pure drinking water, environmentally protective wastewater collection and treatment and other services that benefit the member towns. " The loss, while tragic, can not be unexpected. Best of luck with efforts to keep it available for all to use.
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