Havre Trails gets structured, ready for projects

The newly formed Havre Trails group had its second meeting Monday at the Elks Lodge to elect officers and lay out some goals for their organization.

Havre Trails is headed by Lindsey Bennett, who led discussion with the dozen or so people gathered in the back room of the Elks.

Some of the group’s goals are to improve and connect existing trails and some day look into creating more trails. One of their more immediate goals concerns signage around trails.

Bennett said that through communicating with others, Havre Trails has seen an issue with information about the existing trails.

“There are some places where you are allowed to hike and walk, but they’re not sure up to what point, how far that distance is, whether they can bring a dog with them, whether it needs to be on a leash, where they can park, et cetera.,” Bennett said.

As of now, there is not much information around town as to what trails Havre has to offer except for a poster put out by the Havre Chamber of Commerce. Havre Trails’ goal is to remedy that.

“I would like to see a more cohesive system,” Bennett said. “i would like to see the trails linked up together. … Let’s get people healthy, off the streets and into the trails.”

Malta Trails, which has done an impressive amount of work to their trail system in a short period of time, acquired a $90,000 recreational trail grant to take the system to the next level. In 2013, the U.S. Census recorded Malta as having a population of 1,967, compared to Havre’s 9,771. Bennett said Malta’s success makes her feel hopeful about Havre Trails.

“We definitely have the people here — and the enthusiasm and the resources,” she said.

The newly elected officers of the group are: Bennett for president, Lindsay Brown as vice-president, Sammie Rybicki as secretary and Erin Bradshaw as treasurer.

Part of Bradshaw’s duties as treasurer will be going through the extensive paperwork the group needs fill out to apply for 501(c)(3) non-profit status.

“I’m super excited that we now have an organizational structure so we can get to work,” Bennett said. “A group of us have been putting things together in an ad hoc way until now, so it’s nice to have duties outlined and streamlined.”

The next Havre Trails meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Feb. 9 at the Elks Lodge.