Voters in Dedham will head to the polls on Saturday to decide whether to support the Dedham Heritage Rail Trail, a 2-mile connection between downtown Dedham, the town's schools and the Readville commuter rail station.
The advisory referendum asks voters whether they "favor, if there is no cost to Dedham taxpayers for design and construction, the creation of the so-called Dedham Heritage Rail Trail on the 10-acre parcel of public land that runs from East Street to the Boston/Readville line?"
Dedham trail advocates collected 2,100 signatures to put the advisory referendum on the ballot. The question had originally been scheduled to be put to voters in a town on April 11, but had been rescheduled to Saturday, June 27 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic's stay-at-home orders.
Georganna Woods, a Dedham town meeting representative and trail advocate, says that the non-binding referendum is designed to demonstrate to town leaders just how broad support for the trail really is, so that the town will finally pursue grants from the state's MassTrails program for final design and construction.
