Waterfront trail focus of meeting

BREWER – A proposed 10-mile riverside recreational trail will be the focus of a public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the second-floor meeting room at the Brewer Auditorium.

The waterfront trail system is a key component of Brewer’s recently adopted redevelopment master plan for Penobscot Landing, the name given to the city’s targeted redevelopment area.

The meeting will be conducted by members of the community’s waterfront advisory committee as a way to involve the public in the project.

Residents, who have identified the waterfront as one of their most prized natural assets, will be encouraged to offer opinions, suggestions and comments.

Plans so far call for a 4- to 6-mile trail from South Brewer along the Penobscot River to the old hydroelectric dam across the river from Eastern Maine Medical Center.

From there, project supporters hope to see the trail continue another three to four miles through the woods in the general direction of Felts Brook southeast toward the new natural gas pipeline, over Whiting Hill and then along the proposed parallel access road to Parkway South, where it would head back toward the waterfront.

The proposed trail network would connect businesses, museums and public areas along the waterfront with the city’s residential areas, both along the Penobscot River and farther inland. The connections would help open up the riverfront to pedestrians and bicyclists while attracting visitors to Penobscot Landing.

Representatives from Wilbur Smith Associates of Portland, S.W. Cole Engineering of Bangor and Coplon Associates of Bar Harbor will be on hand to discuss how the community can make the project become a reality.