Council approves appropriation to reserve rail‑trail easement payments ahead of MassTrails deadline

The Lawrence City Council voted to discharge a budget committee item and approve an appropriation to reserve funds in an infrastructure payment account to pay property owners for construction easements tied to the city’s rail‑trail project.

Daniel McCarthy, the city’s planning director, told councilors the funds are set aside to pay property owners who were awarded easement payments under the rail‑trail project and that the underlying MassTrails grant expires at the end of the fiscal year. "That grant ends on June 30 of this year," McCarthy said.

McCarthy explained that some property owners have not submitted required W‑9s or have indicated they do not want to accept awards. He described the city’s approach as holding the awarded funds in an escrow account — the infrastructure payment fund — so the money is available for easement payments while the city completes required administrative steps and coordinates with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. "If at some point, it’s clear that they’re not going to accept the award, the money will then go back to free cash," McCarthy said.

Councilors voted to discharge document 2‑30‑25 from the Budget and Finance Committee and then to appropriate the funds into the infrastructure payment fund for the stated purpose of paying easement awards. The motion to discharge and the motion to appropriate were made and seconded at the meeting and passed on council voice vote; the clerk recorded no nays on the final adoption.

McCarthy said the funds were originally secured by the MassTrails grant and will be set aside only for easement payments; if awards are refused or otherwise rendered ineligible, the funds will revert to free cash and cannot be spent for other purposes without separate council action.

The council approved the appropriation and moved on to other business.