Agenda 12-14-21; 12-2 - Memorandum - Meeting with OWASA Management and Staff on MST

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1 ORANGE COUNTY Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks &Recreation MEMORANDUM To: Bonnie Hammersley, County Manager From: David Stancil, DEAPR Director Re: Meeting with OWASA Management and Staff on MST Date: December 3, 2021 1 am writing to provide a brief summary of our meeting on November 30 with OWASA Executive Director Todd Taylor and OWASA staff on the plans for the Mountains to Sea Trail (MST) in and near OWASA-owned lands at Cane Creek Reservoir. At the meeting (Zoom), we provided an update to OWASA management and staff on activities to secure trail easements and trail routing from NC 54 to Buckhorn Road, around the north side of Cane Creek Reservoir. We shared with OWASA our recent trail easements, including the Board's approval of the Shy easement and the upcoming Johnson easement, and the opportunity this now presents to finalize, map and construct a segment of the MST from Bradshaw Quarry Road at Apple Mill Road to Buckhorn Road through OWASA land. We discussed the next steps in our planning effort, including "ground-truthing" and locating with GPS technology the actual trail route in this area, emergency access and public safety plans, publicizing the segment planning to the surrounding neighbors, other needed approvals, and expectations that OWASA might have toward its own approval processes. OWASA indicated that they would be ready to entertain this trail segment, which would need OWASA Board approval, including the following items: • A map showing the actual location (high-accuracy GPS) of the trail onto and through the OWASA property that lies between the Shy easement to the west and the Johnson easement to the northeast. Orange County Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks &Recreation PO Box 8181, Hillsborough, NC 27278 Phone: (919) 245-2510 Fax: (919) 644-3351