The completion of the TOBIE Trail, a hiking and biking trail that connects the communities of Thendara, Old Forge, Big Moose, Eagle Bay and Inlet, was celebrated with dual ribbon cutting ceremonies on the new pedestrian bridge in Thendara and at the new Eagle Bay Welcome Center on Tuesday, November 5th.
Lani Ulrich, chair of the Adirondack Park Agency, and former Communities 2000 coordinator for the TOBIE Trail Team, who initiated the concept 14 years ago, provided the following oral history of the project prior to the bridge’s ribbon cutting.
My deepest congratulations to the Webb Town Board on the completion of the TOBIE Trail!
Ribbon Cutting…Webb Councilman Mike Ross, Mary Ann Nelson, Jim Ulrich, Councilwoman Katie Russell, David Winslow, Robert Moore, Mary Brophy Moore, Linda Contino Lamb (partially hidden), TOW Historian Peg Masters, TOW Clerk Nanci Russell, TOW Supervisor Ted Russell, Barbara Green, Marie Adams, Helen Estabrook, Lani Ulrich, Chuck White, Mike Farmer, Nick Rose. Photo by Clark Lubbs
The birth of the TOBIE Trail was a moment of unique energy and creativity. Fourteen years ago, Herkimer County Community College had a satellite office here in Old Forge, which I was privileged to run for several years.
This was before the turn of the century. Lots of folks in our state and around the country were looking to the new millennium and wondering what would happen.
What should we prepare for and what should we plan for five, 10, 20 years into the future?
HCCC had developed a community outreach program called Communities 2000. -2000’s mission was to guide our area into the 21st century…“while protecting and preserving the beauty and benefits of our natural resources.”
A Core Team of volunteers including Ray Schoeberlein and Jim Ulrich, who are here today, served as a quasi Board.
Community forums were held to bring diverse regional groups into dialogue and project teams were created to look into various issues—transportation being one. C-2000’s local facilitators included Mary Brophy Moore, Steve Montanye, Don Kelly and George Mitchell. They are who brought the community in the door that very first night!
A group of enthusiastic private residents and government officials learned of an opportunity and seized the moment to devise an enhancement plan and to bring new financial resources to the towns to make it happen.
In February 1999, the group began and by June 29, Marie Adams was physically delivering the application to Albany to make sure we didn’t miss the deadline.
This resulted in the first half-million-dollar grant to our region initiated in the C-2000/CAP-21 era.
TOBIE is the story of public/private partnerships—of town and county governments working with non-profits. CAP-21 (then C-2000), the Central Adirondack Association (CAA), Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA), HCCC and the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties played major roles.
Terry Martino of ANCA taught us how to take on such a huge task, guiding us through— often over speaker phone from Saranac Lake—and submitted the application on behalf of the towns since C-2000 was not incorporated and couldn’t do so.
Linda Contino Lamb and former President Ron Williams of HCCC put their full support behind the use of the HCCC office time and resources, allowing me to coordinate the TOBIE Team and providing Mary Ann Nelson’s speedy, professional administrative support.
Webb Supervisor Ted Riehle addresses the crowd at the Eagle Bay Welcome Center. Photo by Clark Lubbs
The Community Foundation funded C-2000 through HCCC. These funds would have never come north—and might actually have been returned to the Foundation—without Liz McDowell’s networking skills at a CAA banquet at Water’s Edge.
The story of TOBIE is written in the signatures in this document—the TOBIE TEA-21 grant application—the voices and hopes of the more than 600 individuals who signed the petitions 14 years ago.
TOBIE is the story of what is possible when people of good will and leaders of vision work together for their communities, when each team player does their piece, and respects and appreciates the contributions of others.
Along the way, each group built on work done by those who came before, for the TOBIE Team, citing previous studies and conclusions to make the case for funding.
TOBIE is the story of the individual—of Fred Eichholzer of HCCC who devised the Communities 2000 program; of then Herkimer County Legislator Bill McKenzie who saw in the C-2000 efforts the energy and interest in what could be and told us about the TEA-21 grant opportunity; of Bob Van Slyke of Big Moose who volunteered on both the C-2000 Core Team and the ANCA Board and quietly connected us.
Of the team of Barb Green, Dave Winslow, Rich Risley, Paul Chambers, Helen Estabrook and Marie Adams who went to the first TEA-21 meetings in the valley and came back with a dream; of our talented writers Mike Cunningham and Marie Adams, who made the case in a brilliant and beautiful application.
Of Helen Estabrook who named it; of Peg Masters who provided invaluable research; of the elected leaders who took the risks necessary to start the journey: JR Risley of Inlet, George Hiltebrant of Webb and Domiano Contino of Herkimer County.
The last five to 10 points of ranking of the application came from the inter-municipal cooperation of two towns and one county crossing boundaries and working together!
And most importantly, to those who followed, who stood strong to continue the work and completed the job—Supervisors Robert Moore, John Frey and Ted Riehle and their boards.
And, in the present, to Kristin Frymire who kept and then found the original application with original signatures, notes and presentations in the CAP-21 archives at Hemmer Cottage, a record that will remind us what we did and help teach us why it worked.
In closing, I wanted to share a few quotes from those days. Webb Supervisor George Hiltebrant and board member Dan Rivet were sure that “It’ll be a cold day in hell before Herkimer County will match Webb’s investment.”
It was a very chilly day indeed when Herkimer County signed up for that initial $55K match!
Don Kelly, then Webb Codes Officer, volunteered on the
TOBIE Team and the C-2000 Core Team.
He knew that progress is slow and remembers claiming that, “There will be public bathrooms in Eagle Bay when pigs fly!”
And, the one I remember being said over and over by former Supervisor Robert Moore—on somedays with less and less enthusiasm—“The devil’s in the details, the devil’s in the details…”
We, the Planning Team for the TOBIE Trail, were just the beginning. Those who followed are the reason we’re here today.
Jim and I recently found a quote appropriate for today from Vaclav Havel: “Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.”
Congratulations to Supervisor Riehle and the current Webb Board for finishing the climb!
