Residents in Topsham, Bowdoinham, Richmond and Gardiner are invited to a series of Community Conversation meetings to discuss the future of the Merrymeeting Trail. The meetings will be at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 9 at Bowdoinham Community School (23 Cemetery Road, Bowdoinham), 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 16 at Enterprise Grange (15 Alexander Reed Road, Richmond), 6 p.m. on Oct. 23 Gardiner Public Library (152 Water St., Gardiner) and 6 p.m. on Oct. 29 at Topsham Public Library (25 Foreside Road, Topsham).

These facilitated sessions are a place for community members to share input on what they want for the trail — things like what types of uses should be allowed, where parking should go and what aspects of design would help to encourage people to get out and use the trail. Input during the meetings will be used to build the shared municipal and regional vision for the trail and its design. The meetings are hosted by Merrymeeting Trailblazers, a group of local citizens, town staff and nonprofits that have been working together to create this new trail.

Merrymeeting Trail is a planned 26-mile multi-use trail in Midcoast Maine that would pass through the villages of Topsham, Bowdoinham, Richmond and Gardiner, and connect these four communities. The completed trail would be 8-12 feet wide with a surface that is either pavement or stone dust. This easily accessible trail will create a space for short walks near towns or longer trips between the communities, following a beautiful route along the Kennebec River and Merrymeeting Bay. It would be located in the long-unused Lower Road Railroad Corridor, on the right-of-way owned by the State of Maine. The trail would join Augusta to Brunswick by linking the Kennebec River Rail Trail in the north to the Androscoggin River Bicycle and Pedestrian Path in the south. The state’s Active Transportation Plan showcases this route as an arterial trail in the state, part of a vision of a network of trails that would connect Maine’s 25 largest municipalities and over two-thirds of Maine’s population.

A previous key step that laid the foundation for this fall’s Community Conversation meetings was the 2023 Rail Use Advisory Council process that was charged with making a recommendation for future use of the Lower Road rail corridor. A 14-member council convened by MaineDOT went through a nine-month process of regular meetings, discussions, fact-finding and analysis. At the end of the process, the committee voted to recommend the creation of a trail along the corridor. October’s Community Conversations are a place to share ideas about how this trail can be designed to best serve the communities and be well-used and loved by residents.