At an early morning meeting Thursday, Selectmen signed off on a series of documents that should prompt the release of $8 million in state funds to complete a mile stretch of the South Coast bike path designed to run from Fairhaven to Wareham.

Facing an Aug. 16,  deadline to complete work on the acquisition of land, rights of way and easements needed for the final Mattapoisett piece of the trail, the board signed the papers that day, accompanied by representatives of several of the affected land-owners.

"The principal issue we're here for today is that we have documents that we have forward on the MassDOT right away," Mattapoisett Town Administrator Michael  Gagne said at the 7:30 a.m. Aug. 16, Selectmen's meeting. "We've been working since Town Meeting back in November of  2017, which gave us the authorization to proceed with the necessary rights-of-way and agreements for the purposes effectuating the layout of the bike path, known as Phase 1B, which will go from Mattapoisett Neck Road to Depot Street parking lot.

Gagne said the process has been long, with many moving parts, but the end result will mean an extension of the town bike path.

"What we have today after a long culmination of meetings and  negotiations  and discussions, and work jointly with the right-of-way agents, the board from Reservation (Golf Course), the director and chief financial officer for the YMCA, and David McIntire, and Linda Walsh from MassDOT right-of-way agent, we have what they need to get the bike path for advertisement in September, and hopefully an award of a contract for the construction of this bike at the end of October," Gagne said.

Gagne introduced Matthew Thomas, the town's legal counsel for the rights-of-way and easements issues pertaining to the bike path.

"This morning we have a number of documents," Thomas said. "Initially, it's the agreements between the town and Reservation (Golf Course). Some of their representatives are here today, and the town and the Y," Thomas said. "The YMCA approved everything. They are meeting this morning (Aug. 16) just to confirm the votes. I'm pretty sure they're going to sign the agreement today, and just to be safe, we are going to do a (land) taking against them, just in case something does fall through, which I don't think is gonna happen."

Selectmen Jordan Collyer and Tyler McAllister then spent the next 20 minutes signing all the necessary documents. The descriptions of what was done to effectuate the plan revealed some interesting aspects.

Selectmen were first asked to sign off on two land takings that happened in July. Those landowners were given copies of appraisals for easements to be taken on their properties to develop the bike path, Thomas said. One of those easement takings belongs to Dennis Mahoney and Sons, who were offered an appraised price of $1,900, but did not accept. The other is a backup plan in case the Y did not sign a previously negotiated agreement with the town.

"I just want to be clear, we've not taking dirt ownership. We're just taking an easement," Thomas said. "In most of these areas what we're doing is laying the bike path easement over the sewer easement, which is over the railway easement."

The next three documents Selectmen signed off on were with regard to Reservation Golf Course. The board of directors for the golf club voted to donate  temporary easements, permanent easements, and plus utility easements to the town.

Another four documents pertained to the Y. The town negotiated two temporary easements, a permanent easement, a public utility easement with the South Coast YMCA Board of Directors.

The following five documents were temporary easement agreements with abuttors to the portion of the bike path that was already taken from Mattapoisett Neck Road to the  Mattapoisett River. The first part of the bike path was taken in 2002, but the town still needed temporary easement on abutters to put hay bales in to prevent run off during the construction period. Gagne thanked the five abutters, saying they were "extremely cooperative" and willing to help.

Two documents gave MassDOT permission to enter onto town property to perform work related to the bike path.

Selectmen also approved two ways that will become public ways as part of the bike path.  The first is a portion of road at the bottom of Reservation Road, and the other will be on Goodspeed Island Road, near the Mahoney property up to Depot Street.

The final official document was the dedication of the Mattapoisett Shared Use Path -Phase 1B for its intended use for transportation and recreation.

The town administrator seemed pleased that the process for this second half of the town's scenic bike path, which will skirt the coastline, seems to be coming to fruition. He was particularly appreciative to Reservation Golf Course, granting the golf club the right to erect a sign at the intersection of Route 6 and Reservation Road.

"One last thing is that in working with the Board of Directors at Reservation, working hand-in-hand, and I gotta say I've been down here (in Mattapoisett) about nine years and the folks at Reservation (Golf Course) have always been great to work with, and a great help on a number of different issues, including the use of that land at the end of Reservation Road, of which they own a rather substantial part of the beach, the parking area," Gagne said. "They've been excellent."

Gagne described the sign as "tasteful", and said he would send the town building inspector the approval so that the golf club could be issued a sign permit.

Selectmen went into executive session to discuss labor negotiations with the town's union and non-union employees immediately the open meeting, but Thomas was available to talk more about Phase 1B.

"Phase IB is going to be a beautiful bike path that's going to go from Mattapoisett Neck Road to Depot Street," Thomas said after the early morning meeting. "It's originating in the wooded area of Mattapoisett Neck Road and opens out and then it crosses the marsh by Mattapoisett River. It then proceeds up between the YMCA property and Reservation Golf Course. It comes down Reservation Road and then it goes up Goodspeed Island Road, again through the marshes and along the beaches and then up into Depot Street."

He said Phase 1B is an $8 million project, with $6 million of that amount going to bridges and boardwalks construction through the marsh areas.

Thomas said the town did the acquisition of the land. but the design and construction is being paid for with federal highway money and administered and overseen by Mass DOT. "This is actually the money that comes from people's gas tax," he said of the funding source.

"It's going to be beautiful. I walked it the other day," Thomas said of Phase 1B. "There's been a lot of negotiations and a lot of people had to cooperate for us to get to this point in time."