Bay to Sound Trail in Southold Moves Forward with Town Board Approval

The next phase of a Bay To Sound trails plan is moving forward in Southold Town.

At Tuesday’s town board work session, John Sepenoski of the town’s land preservation committee presented Phase 2 of the overall concept plan and its intended results.

The goal is to create approximately 2.1 miles of new trails on 67 acres of preserved lands that are currently not open to the public.

The existing Arshamomaque Preserve, Manor Grove section, concept plan will open up 30 acres and include approximately 0.5 miles of new trails; implementing both plans will result in 148 acres of preserved lands with a total length of connected trails of 3.9 miles open to the public, Sepenoski said.

The plan, which includes land on the former Sill property, is independent of the disposition of the Sill house; whether the house is kept or taken down will not impact the trail design, he said.

Southold Town, Sepenoski said, has been “patient” with setting up new trails within the Greater Pipes Cove area because overall preservation goals were set very high in that area, and the town wanted to avoid creating trails that would possibly need to be abandoned should additional preservation occur.

In addition, the plan avoids having any trails that cross the railroad tracks except for the existing legal grade crossing at Pipes Neck Road. Should additional grade crossings be created in the future they can be used to expand the trail system into other areas, he said.

In order to implement the concept, the town will need to secure permission from both Suffolk County Parks and the Long Island Power Authority to create trails on their parcels; the process has already commenced to secure those approvals.

Sepenoski said he didn’t forsee any problems with securing county permission. But, should the town be unable to receive the okay, the concept could be modified to rely on use of town roads, specifically Chapel Lane and Pipes Neck Road, to provide the connections to Arshamomaque Preserve, he said.

The trails plan includes having a connection to the Pipes Neck Road bridge and beach. Initially, that connection will use Pipes Neck Road; however, since the town owns the properties on the south side of Pipes Neck Road, eventually a trail could be created that follows the road but is not on the vehicle travel lane, he said.

The bulk of the loop trail with access to the pond goes through mature woodland with very little understory so very little work will have to be done to create that trail, Sepenoski said.

Some manmade ditches in the area may require filling, or possibly boardwalks, should it be determined that water flows through the ditches at certain times of the year.

The bulk of the work will only involve installation of signage, Sepenoski said.

Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell raised questions about stewardship, with an additional 2.1 miles of trails “substantial”.

The trail, Sepenoski said, should require “very little ongoing maintenance” with the only section to be mowed located between the house on the Sill property and the pond.

One section, near the county parcel has significant understory and will involve some clearing in order to create trails, Sepenoski said. However, he said, the amount of clearing is in line with the clearing that Southold Department of Public Works has typically handled in the past at other nature preserves. In addition, he said, some boardwalks may be necessary but the plan is to avoid them if possible.

And, while the plan includes providing access to the pond on the former Sill property, the concept is to not make the entire circumference of the pond accessible and leave some areas natural to enhance habitat for fish and other wildlife, Sepenoski said.

The main goal is linking the trails, he added.

Councilman Bob Ghosio asked how long the work would take; Sepenoski said it depended on the DPW and the weather. “If we have a light winter, the DPW can get to it quicker,” he said.

Community Preservation Funds can be used for the Sill parcel, he added.

Last week, Greenport Village Trustee Doug Roberts said he has a plan to pitch Silver Lake for inclusion in the bay-to-Sound trail project.

He hopes to bring the issue up at this week’s work session on Thursday night at the Third Street Firehouse.

According to Roberts, several years ago, the village ”opted out of funding” that would have put a trail system and boardwalk in at Silver Lake, connecting Webb Street to Moores Lane, via a walking trail, and developing Monsell Trail, too.

“This project has not yet been completed,” Roberts said, although the town is working on a Phase 2, west of the village, around Pipe’s Cove and near the old Sill property.

Roberts thinks the trail would prove to be a win-win.

“This is a no-brainer that would benefit the village residents, visitors, the environment, and the entire region,” he said.

Russell agreed: “This is very good news. The town has been working for years to complete a bay to Sound trail. What had originally started as a joint project between the town and the village for whatever reason, didn’t move forward. While the town had focused on continuing the work to complete the portions of the trail within the town, it is very good news to see that Trustee Roberts want to renew the partnership and complete the work. i believe he’s right, it is a win-win.”

While there is no specific funding allocated currently for the Silver Lake portion of the plan, Roberts said the more agencies that back the project, the better the chances of garnering monies to implement the idea. He’d like to suggest the idea once again to the Group for the East End, he said.

To that end, Roberts plans to propose a resolution to the village board, committing to a partnership with the town of Southold, on developing Silver Lake as part of the bay-to-Sound trail project.

“With the village’s renewed interest,” Sepenoski said the town should look to partner with the village and other agencies for grant funding. The work could possibly be done in a third phase of the project, he said.

He added that the village had originally intended to create a boardwalk; the plan was to work with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to stock Silver Lake with game fish. The plan was ditched after interest was shown in the area for engineered wetlands, related to MS4 compliance.

The Southold Town board voted unanimously last night to approve the Bay to Sound Trails Phase 2 Concept Plan, adding it to the town’s open space project list. Back in 2005, Southold Town’s hamlet studies recommended a low-impact trail system throughout town-owned and preserved properties.