The N.H. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources plans to host a public information session Wednesday night to air a revised plan for a utility safety upgrade project at Miller State Park.
According to local hikers, the latest plan now reflects many of their concerns and priorities for the site.
The meeting is to showcase the revised plan for replacing and rerouting the utility poles that currently crisscross the mountain’s access road.
The utility pole upgrades are the first phase of a two-phase upgrade of the utility corridor from Route 101 to just below the summit of Pack Monadnock. The second phase of the project is still under development but includes aesthetic improvements to the summit area of the park.
“We have come up with a way to take our oldest state park and improve the experience … electrical and safety all in one motion,” David Baum said, on a dawn hike up the park’s access road on Monday.
He cited improvements “all the way around” for aesthetic, logistical and safety improvements to the state park in the revised plan.
Baum was one of six community members who met with public and private stakeholders for the past two years to draft a plan that accommodated local hikers’ values, after local park users spoke out and demonstrated against an initial proposal in late 2017.
The hikers said the initial proposal included 18 utility poles crisscrossing the upper half of the park’s road and the removal of a substantial amount of roadside trees. They noted the original plan would have substantially diminished the natural aesthetics on the upper portion of the road.
Baum believes the utility companies hadn’t previously known how many park users were passionate about using the road for walking. He estimated that thirty people walk the road on a more or less daily basis, and Francie Von Mertens, another local delegate to the stakeholder meetings, said there were more than 100 families associated with the Pack Monadnock Roadway Association, the group that formed to defend local users’ interests in the park plan.
“This was a great model of how public, private, and governmental stakeholders could … work collectively for the benefit of their needs and the common good,” Baum said, and credited all parties’ flexibility and cooperation in what he saw as a satisfyingly negotiated plan.
Von Mertens commended Eversource for responding to public input and going back to the drawing board.
Baum said Eversource plans to begin to trim trees to accommodate the new routing of lines this fall.
The session is planned to take place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Shieling State Forest in Peterborough. More information is available on the N.H. State Parks webpage for the project.
Other project partners include Eversource, the N.H. Public Utilities Commission, the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the Department of Transportation, Consolidated Communications and FirstLight Fiber.