End of an era for Trails

For the last seven or eight years of its existence, the Norwood Trails Advisory Committee (NTAC) has been chaired by Joseph Greeley, but at last week’s regular meeting, Greeley announced he was stepping back from the position.

Greeley said he was leaving to be closer to his grandchildren and family, who live up in Southern Maine.

“It’s not an easy decision, but if I don’t take these steps to move closer to the family, I’ll never get another chance at it again,” he said. “My two daughters have two kids each, and they’re young kids and I faced the choice and made the decision to move north to them. If I don’t, I’ll miss the kids growing up and everything that goes along with that.”

Greeley said he was proud of the last seven or eight years on the Trails Committee and all the group was able to accomplish.

“I’m lucky enough to have built a great family here in Norwood; lots of friends and family I’ve worked side-by-side with, and I like to think as we all have worked together, we all have accomplished a lot and moved a great community even further forward,” he said.

Members of the NTAC agreed and pointed to the recent landslide vote to acquire the Cofsky Farm and related properties at the November Town Meeting. But soon the conversation went into what the committee is going to do once Greeley is gone.

“I really wanted to do the Cofsky Farm victory lap before we did this,” NTAC member Chris Paddock said with a laugh.

The Trails Committee divided up responsibilities to make sure that they could take over Greeley’s responsibilities. As you might imagine, his responsibilities were extensive, and the division of labor took up a lot of time.

“But I want Joe to be able to move on to the next phase of his life and not worry about his precious Trails Committee,” Paddock said. “I want to make sure that when you’re leaving, we’ve got this figured out, for our sake and especially yours, you know?”

Greeley said he had complete faith in the committee.

“Rock stars all,” he said. “I just kind of sit back and watch the magic. We wouldn’t be what we are and we wouldn’t have gotten the accolades from Town Meeting without you guys. The opportunity to buy Cofsky Farm would not have happened if people didn’t believe in our credibility to do something with it. Like owning it is one thing, but turning it into a resource – and it’s a rock star resource – that’s something totally different, and if you all didn’t do what you did, Cofsky wouldn’t be what Cofsky should be without you all.”

“There’s the victory lap I wanted,” said Paddock.

NTAC member Brian Palmateer said he agreed, noting that in the eight years the committee has been together they’ve built quite a following.

“I didn’t think about it like that, but all the good will we built up through our monthly trails hikes, meetings, awareness and outreach when we got up at Town Meeting it was like, this will really add to it,” said Palmateer.

“Even if Cofsky passed, the other two would not have without the work we’ve been doing over the last five-to-10 years,” said NTAC Gerry Hopcroft.

“It was a landslide, and it could have been a real uphill battle,” said Paddock. “We’ve established a reliable reputation that we’re doing good work, and it just makes people more open to the idea.”

The Committee discussed how to fill Greeley’s shoes, as it were, and they all agreed that one person wouldn’t be able to step into them so easily.

“I think breaking it up is the best way to do it,” said Vice Chair Lee Leach. “Just to make sure our committee is as effective as it has been under Joe’s leadership.”

The Committee voted unanimously to appoint Paddock to the Chair position, with Leach voted to the Town Liaison position (along with his current role as Vice Chair), and member Joe Barrett Operations Chair. The Committee will look to vote on a new clerk position later.

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Member Vic Babel said he wanted to officially thank Greeley and fellow founder Leach.

“You brought us from nothing over the years to this point, and this point is a big breakaway; we hate to see you go but you got us here where it’s only going to expand and be better and better,” he said.

“Thank you for your service,” said member Craig Austin. “It’s a lot, and once in a while if you step back and look, you’ll see you have created a lot.”

While all members showed apprehension with the prospect of losing Greeley’s expertise, Hopcroft said he had faith they would continue to be such a resource to the Town.

“We’ll make it work,” he said.

And Leach pointed out Greeley is always invited to participate remotely.

“I think at some point Joe we would probably want to keep you in the loop as much as we can, even if it’s remote that would be great,” he said. “Just to make sure we’re covering all our bases.”

“And please don’t change your email or your phone number!” said member Marguerite Krupp with a laugh.