By Marjorie Jeffries
10/16/08

(previous)
In 1975 (some of you were not even born then), I was bicycling along Wellesley’s Fuller Brook, delightful scenery connecting many roads, schools and playgrounds. Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I mused, if Milton had such a lovely scenic, off road path to connect to our schools, parks and ponds. Then it struck me. Pine Tree Brook was almost a duplicate of Wellesley’s brook, and bordered by town owned land so no land taking would be involved.
That fall a group of bicyclists raised $1,000, more was offered, meetings were held with the usual objections - vandalism, drinking parties and undesirable characters. One woman objected at Town Meeting and the article for the path was defeated.
Time passed. Biking became more popular. A Bicycle Advisory Committee was established by the Selectmen with the mission to encourage and promote safe bicycling.
Then I heard that police collected bicycles each summer that had been stolen, or abandoned and trashed them at the end of the summer. Other towns held bicycle auctions to dispose of their collected bikes. So we started holding auctions at our police station in the fall. It grew because Milton residents were encouraged to bring their unwanted bikes to the auction which gradually morphed into a simple sale.
Scott at Dave’s Bike Infirmary on Granite Avenue earns our thanks by helping us price the bikes. Later we changed to spring sales when folks were more interested in thinking about summer cycling.
That meant that the police bikes would be outdoors in the rain and snow all winter.
Cunningham Park Foundation came to our rescue and for a few years bikes were stored in their barn, and we held our sales in their lovely walled garden.
More folks brought more bikes to be sold. By last winter Cunningham facilities were overflowing and bikes had to be stored in the pool pump house. Then Walter Heller offered to combine our spring bike sale with his open house at the DPW site.
It was a great success and we were swamped with over 100 bikes. We sold most of them and donated the leftovers to nonprofit bicycle organizations.
All this summer the police have been collecting bikes, but the rain has been falling and the rust process has begun. What will we do for the winter? We are deeply grateful to the Trustees of Cunningham Park. They rescued us at times when we had no other option, providing us with storage space, manpower and transportation. But this sale is really a town enterprise and problems should be handled by the town.
I kept studying the walls of the police building trying to see if we could add a lean-to or attach an addition, anything that provided rain shelter.
My son Peter, who was in the business of renovating houses for 20 years, came and looked and said simply, “Why don’t we buy a shed?”
A magical process started. To my astonishment, Chief of Police Richard Wells was enthusiastic; Kevin Mearn, town administrator saw no problem.
We had the money in the Bike Advisory account; and all we had to do was investigate the most reasonable shed company.
On Oct. 8, Skip’s Outdoor Accents truck rolled in the police parking lot. A workman unloaded the shed completely constructed, replaced a few missing tiles from the roof, whacked back some overhanging branches and was off in half an hour with his pug dog beside him.
So now you know the who, what, why and when of how the town acquired a brand new building for the benefit of its residents, the town and the Bicycle Advisory Committee at no cost to its taxpayers.