The news this week that the Mad River Path Greenway along the east side of the Mad River in Waitsfield will close indefinitely is sad but also an eye-opener. The Neill family, which farms the land where the Greenway ran, made their property open to the public for almost 20 years, providing a stellar and scenic pathway from the Meadow Road bridge to Tremblay Road.
The Greenway was extremely well used – and sadly abused by people who failed to clean up after their dogs and/or keep them on a leash.
The Mad River Path Association is working with the town of Waitsfield on a tax abatement program that provides tax relief for landowners who make their land open to the public – and that may yield results.
But residents and visitors from all Valley towns need to be taking a long hard look at the value of a path that meanders along the Mad River, providing recreational access to the river as well as access to the path itself.
There are some things that are a bargain at any price. Over a decade ago, one Warren woman asked Valley residents to all chip in $10 to make sure that Warren Falls remained open to the public. It took a while, but it worked and Warren Falls remains one of The Valley’s most beautiful public recreational facilities.
It is time that the same approach be taken to the Greenway. This resource is invaluable in The Valley and it is time to work with the Neill family, putting our money where our mouths are, to secure access in perpetuity.
We have time, this summer and fall, to reflect on how important a resource the Greenway is and to ask ourselves what it’s worth to have it open.
Ten or 20 or 50 years from now, when the Greenway is even more popular and more invaluable as a Valley resource, no one will say (nor has anyone ever noted that Warren Falls was not worth every penny) that it wasn’t a good deal.
There is some consolation, to return to Joni Mitchell’s immortal lyrics, that the Neills are unlikely to pave this particular piece of paradise and put up a parking lot.
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