American Tobacco Trail Workday Saturday, May 3 at 9 a.m.

[Bill Bussey]

Hi Volunteers for the American Tobacco Trail,

This very late 
message is to remind you of our American Tobacco Trail workday, tomorrow
*Saturday, May 3*, at the Chatham-Wake County line in Chatham County at 
9:00 a.m. 

Please join us for this workday, * * tomorrow, *Saturday, May 3*, at the 
Chatham-Wake County line in Chatham County.at 9:00 a.m.

*Directions:
*
 >From I-40 Exit 276, Southpoint Mall-Fayetteville Road, go south - away
from Durham - toward Jordan Lake.

Go past the mall on your right and 2.4 miles all the way to the end of
Fayetteville Road. Here, Fayetteville Road intersects NC 751 at a light.

Turn left at the light. Go 6.6 miles, passing O'Kelly Chapel Road at .75
miles and New Hope Church Road (see Exxon convenience store on left) at
4.2 miles. At or near 6.6 miles is Lewter Shop Road on the left. See the
sign for Jean's Berry Patch (now Pumpkin Patch). Turn left onto Lewter 
Shop Road.

Go approximately 2.5 miles or so. See a place with small auto/truck size
trailers on the right. Immediately beyond his place is the Chatham/Wake
County line. The road changes texture at the county line. About a 1/4
mile beyond the county line, you'll see White Oak Church Road on your
right. Continue beyond to the first left past White Oak Church Road.This
is Farrell Road. If you cross the ATT and construction beyond, you've 
gone too far.

Next:  See *Farrell Road* below.
*
Directions from Cary:

*From Cary take High House Road to NC 55. On High House, cross NC 55 at 
light moving west. High House changes to Green Level Road. Go 
approximately 2 miles to the first major crossing with 2 way stop 
intersection. Those coming from right and left stop. Turn right onto 
Green Level Church Road and drive approximately 3 miles. Pass Green 
Level Church on your left and Brooks Park on your right. Cross the ATT 
(you'll see bike and pedestrian crossing signs) Turn right at the first 
right past the ATT onto Farrell Road. If you come to the intersection of 
White Oak Church Road on your left, you've gone too far.

*Farrell Road: *

Turn left onto Farrell Road. Go about 3/4 mile. Pass the Turtle Farm
subdivision entrance on your left. The trail will be on your right. 
Continue on to where the paved road turns to gravel. Park on the left 
side of the road before the road turns to gravel.  I'm sure our cars 
will be parked there so you'll see them. We'll be working on the trail 
to the east of there. The driveway will be immediately left of the 
mailboxes. If you arrive late, walk down the rightmost driveway down to 
the trail. We don't want to park in or near the driveway where we'll be 
working, so we'll walk a few hundred feet in down that driveway.

Frank Bennett will lead this workday as I'll be doing a work related 
event. Our goal is to work on expanding some drainage ditches and trail 
in this area. We'll also spread and compact dirt dug from some of the 
ditches worked on as well. There will be plenty to do.

The weather is supposed to be nice in the morning, though the weather 
can always change. Use your best judgment regarding your participation 
and your comfort in rainy conditions.

Last week, Dan Clever, Dilys Bowman and me staffed an American Tobacco 
Trail information table at the Chapel Hill Earth Action Day event. We 
met lots of wonderful folks and talked about the progress of the ATT. 
Thanks to Dan, Dilys and all who stopped by.

As always,bring work gloves, full shoes or boots, long pants, and other
clothing appropriate for the weather. Bring water and a snack if you
like. Be prepared for briars and ticks because you will be in the woods.

Ticks are now out and are pretty bad this year. The best repellent are 
those formulations which include Permethrin as an active ingredient. You 
apply these repellents to clothing. You can find these generally 
anywhere. For more information, check out this link 
<http://www.wildernetwork.org/deet_vs_permethrin.html>. However, we've 
found the best way to avoid tick borne illness is to remove ticks as 
quickly as you find/feel them.

You will need to sign a waiver and participation list.

While you don't have to bring any tools because we do have some tools,
we do have a wish list of tools if you'd like to bring them.
 
If you have a mattock, particularly a cutter mattock, we could use it at 
this workday.

If you have some, bring a pair of loppers. 

Feel free to bring a small hand pruning saw if you like.
 
We can always use a pickup truck which you don't mind hauling brush,
logs and trash on the trail. Please contact Bill Bussey 
<mailto:billbus at gte.net> 919 545-9104 or Frank Bennett 
<mailto:FJB675 at hotmail.com> 919-851-3992 so we can make plans.

We'll work till about noon, and probably a bit after.

*Do note* that if you are volunteering for school *Environmental Service 
hours*, and you say you will work for 3 hours, you need to be prepared 
to work until noon, or a little after because we need to plan for our 
work and cleanup of our work. If you need to leave earlier, you need to 
let the workday leader know ahead of time. Thanks!

If you or your group would like to work days or early evenings other
than Saturdays, please let Bill Bussey <mailto:billbus at gte.net> know.

Please let Curt Devereux <mailto:cdevereux at nc.rr.com> 919 919 544-3948 
Frank Bennett <mailto:FJB675 at hotmail.com> 919-851-3992 or Bill Bussey 
<mailto:billbus at gte.net> 919 545-9104 know anytime if you have any 
questions.

For more information on ATT workdays, please see our Volunteering page
at: http://triangletrails.org/VOLUNTEERS.HTM

For directions to workday meeting places and ATT Trailheads go to our
directions page at: http://www.triangletrails.org/DIRECTIONS.HTM

Future workdays are still being planned. Here is the tentative schedule
for upcoming workdays.

*Upcoming American Tobacco Trail Workdays *

*Saturday, May 3 *Durham Workday north of Chatham-Wake county line 9 a.m.
*
Saturday, May 10 *Durham Workday Solite Park 9 a.m. This may change.

*Saturday, May 17* Chatham Workday to be determined.*

Big News!

*The second Community Meeting about the planned pedestrian and bicycle 
bridge crossing of *I-40 for the American Tobacco Trail (ATT)* was held 
this past Tuesday, April 29 in the City Council Chambers at Durham City 
Hall.  

This meeting, which was hosted by the City of Durham Department of 
Public Works (and facilitated by Steven Grover and Associates) focused 
on a selection of bridge concepts and designs for this long anticipated 
bicycle and pedestrian bridge.

About 100 ATT trail supporters and interested folks attended this 
informative meeting. It was refreshing how Stephen Grover discussed the 
bridge and the thoughts behind it in a very intelligent manner. He spoke 
up to those in attendance instead of talking down to them, as is usually 
the case when consultants speak before the public. Most questions were 
answered thoughtfully with time after the meeting for individual 
discussion with the architect and staff involved.

Cudos to Stephen Grover, staff at Parsons Brinkerhoff, and Byron Brady 
for setting up this meeting.

If you missed the meeting, you can still make comments. The links to the 
meeting handouts are below.

Keep in mind there was a LOT of information, graphics, models and 
discussion at the meeting that might influence your choice. Thus, the 
information in these links only scratch the surface of the thought, 
scope and concerns that went behind these bridge choices. I present them 
to you here with the concern that one might make a choice based on too 
little information. Please be aware of this...

Here are links to the two handouts from the meeting.

The first is the list of design criteria:
http://public.campingfools.com/wiki/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=75 
<http://public.campingfools.com/wiki/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=75>

The second is the survey itself:
http://public.campingfools.com/wiki/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=76 
<http://public.campingfools.com/wiki/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=76>

They survey needs to be returned no later than May 7th. See the bottom 
of the
survey page for return information.

Thanks to Daniel Schudel dan at campingfools.com 
<mailto:dan%40campingfools.com> for these links.
 
Should you have any questions or input regarding this meeting, please 
contact Byron Brady, PD CPESC, Contract Engineer, City of Durham at 919 
560-4326 x 296 or byron.brady AT durham.gov <mailto:byron.brady at durham.gov>.

If you can't make this meeting, feel free to contact Mr. Brady at the 
above address. Better yet, contact the Durham City Council 
<mailto:council at ci.durham.nc.us> (this address sends your message to all 
of the Durham City Council) and tell them how much you want the ATT I-40 
bridge AND trail built as quickly as possible. You might also ask them 
to attend the meeting as well.

If you have any questions regarding this message, or want to chat about 
the trail or bridge, or don't know who to ask or talk to about your 
ideas or concerns, please feel free to contact Bill Bussey Triangle 
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy 919 545-9104 americantobaccotrail@ 
embarqmail.com <mailto:americantobaccotrail at embarqmail.com> or Dan 
Clever 919 286 3827 daclever@ gmail.com <mailto:daclever at gmail.com> 
 
You can print out our latest ATT map *right now* at 
http://www.triangletrails.org/ATT.HTM . Click on both links under the 
thumbnail for both sides of the map.

Don't let the thumbnail fool you. This is our new color ATT map done by 
Wayne Horton of Winston-Salem.

And let me take this opportunity to *Thank You* for all of your help
and support in building, cleaning and clearing the American Tobacco
Trail in 2007. Thanks to your hard work, expertise and
diligent efforts, we are making steady progress.

Thousands of trail 
users are *now safely using* the sections of the trail and facilities
you have helped clear, clean and build. We get so many wonderful
comments and thanks on how well the trail looks when folks use these
facilities. These trail users are often *amazed* to find out that these
improvements were done *completely* by volunteers. Thank you for the
great work and for volunteering your valuable time to help with this
project. Know that it wouldn't be possible without the great work of
each and every one of you.

Thanks for your help and support in building the American Tobacco Trail.

Happy Trails,

Bill Bussey
Triangle Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
americantobaccotrail at earthlink.net
www.triangletrails.org
919 545-9104
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