It’s finally official! April 25 marked the official commencement of the expansion of the Mattapoisett bike path, and state officials, local officials, and the folks of Mattapoisett all gathered at the YMCA grounds at the end of Reservation Road to celebrate this latest phase of the bike path, one that will further connect area residents with surrounding communities and the natural beauty of Buzzards Bay.
“What a beautiful spot,” said MassDOT Administrator John Gulliver standing at the podium, a row of shiny silver shovels in the sand in the background.
“These are difficult projects to pull off,” Gulliver said on behalf of the Highway Division. “We’re known for doing a lot of big projects like bridges and highways and such, but we do a lot of these bike trails and these are some the most difficult projects we do.” With all the consulting and cooperating it takes with project partners and abutters, “you really have to be very delicate with the design, and sometimes it takes a really, really long time.”
And it has taken a really, really long time. This day was literally 20 years in the making.
“We really want the final project to be what it’s going to be, which is a beautiful bike trail that’s going to provide connectivity for folks and, really, provide an opportunity to see the beautiful landscape that’s gonna be around it, and so we’re really, really happy to be here today to kick this one off,” said Gulliver. “This is one of those projects that takes so many people to get it done – with all the people that have been involved in this … if we had all just brought a shovel with us to all these meetings we’d probably be done with this trail now over the 20 years!”
The fruition of the roughly $8 million project, Gulliver said, couldn’t have been possible without State Representative Bill Straus, “a strong partner and tireless advocate,”as Gulliver called him.
Straus had mixed feelings about the celebration that morning, he said. “This is a project that’s had a lot of years in the making, and I didn’t feel good earlier this morning saying to somebody, you know, ‘When the project enters its third decade of planning,’ you begin to wonder, are you gonna be there to see it through? And this one, we are.”
Straus recalled 20 years ago when he attended an event just like this one in Fairhaven, and then eventually the first mile was laid down in Mattapoisett through to Neck Road, he said.
“And then this segment that is going to be more than significant because now, from village to village … you will have a transportation alternative, and that’s what these paths are about,” Straus said. “They are about recreation. They are about throwing people into the beautiful setting we have here, but the idea is … it’s another means for people to get around. There are things other than automobiles as a method.”
Straus thanked State Senator Mark Montigny, who was unable to attend, for his support of the project.
“But it’s the local people, though, in town that make a day like this possible,” Straus said. “There were many days, many town meetings … when almost every year at Town Meeting there was an issue about whether the Bike Path would continue.”
At first there were some opponents, Straus acknowledged, mostly before the first mile was paved into Mattapoisett. And those who advocated on behalf of the Mattapoisett bike path expansion had to go “20 for 20,” he said, and win every fight they faced. But opponents, he said, “if they had stopped the bike path even once, that was it.
“Opponents of projects like this only have to go one for 19 – once they win once, projects like this die.”
Straus also thanked the YMCA for its generous donation of the right of way access for the bike path.
Bike Path Committee Chairman Steve Kelleher has been on this committee since it was formed 23 years ago.
“Today, we’re here to celebrate those 23 years of dedication and hard work,” said Kelleher. “It was a difficult and exciting 23 years – I expected it to take five, but I guess I underestimated what was ahead.”
Kelleher gave thanks for all the different members who served on the committee with him over the years, the ones who “kept the faith,” he said.
“I wish Dave Jenney who just passed away about a month ago was here with us today,” said Kelleher, and all the others who have left the earth before that morning’s celebration. “I know that they’re all up there looking down here today and with great joy to see this project finally come to being.”
Bonne DeSousa, president of the Friends of the Mattapoisett Bike Path, a non-profit that has fundraised for years to help fund the project, said she was delighted to see the MassDOT funding more projects such as this one.
“MassDOT … began to see that building roads is not just about building the fastest, smoothest way from one place to another,” said DeSousa. “Building roads is about quality of life; building roads is about creating pleasant safe alternatives for getting where you want to go, healthful alternatives for where you want to go…. Thank you for sticking with this project and for getting it done.”
The group then proceeded to the shiny shovels in the sand, dug them in and, with a toss into the air, the project was officially begun.
By Jean Perry