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By Lucas Bechtol Ibechtol@bryantimes.com
Apr 25, 2022
Montpelier Village Councilman Nate Thompson said a trail camera installed on the Iron Horse River Trail showed 2,408 people have used the trail since last April.
Photo by Lucas Bechtol
MONTPELIER — The numbers are in and 2,400 people used the Iron Horse River Trail in the last year to either walk or ride a bike.
Councilman Nate Thompson said during Monday’s village council meeting that a trail camera was placed at the west bridge of the trail last April. Since then, 2,408 people have used the trail. That included 1,151 walkers and 375 bicyclists.
“It’s not going to give the full impact because, honestly, I think it’s bigger than that,” he said. “It does not track any travelers on the east side of the trail ... So I think that number is probably low.”
Thompson said it was great to have data that shows people use the trail.
Thompson also said the next Mission Montpelier — a village-wide effort in which volunteers help clean up the town — will be on June 4 and will likely be focused on trail maintenance and possibly spreading mulch.
“This started two years ago on June 13, where we had about 100 people show up that day,” he said. “It blew our minds that day as far as the amount of people who showed up and what we were able to do that day.”
The day has become an asset to the community, Thompson said, and he hoped it would gain traction.
Separately, GayLynn Harris invited the council to the National Day of Prayer Community Prayer Breakfast.
Harris, who serves as the chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, said the breakfast will be at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 5.
“We’ll begin with a continental breakfast at 8:30 and from 9 to 10 o’clock we’ll have various pastors pray over our community, our churches, our families and area businesses,” she said. “This year we are praying and promoting specifically for the media. So, we’ve got Mr. Forest Church from the Village Reporter to be our local speaker.”
Mayor Steve Yagelski also made a Day of Prayer proclamation.
In other business, council:
• Held an executive session to discuss personnel.
• Passed a resolution electing to take the standard allowance for revenue replacement for American Rescue Plan Act funds. Director of Finance Nikki Uribes said doing so gives the village more flexibility on reporting and how it can use the ARPA funds.
• Village Manager Jason Rockey said Chris Suydan was selected as the new K-9 officer, allowing the village’s police dog, Knox, to get back onto the streets. He said Suydan will start training next week and will be able to get on the road after training, which takes about four weeks.
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