Hike Planned At Hidden Pond

SOUTHBURY — The public is invited to hike at Hidden Pond Park on Sunday, October 1. The hike has been scheduled to acquaint people with the 58-acre park by three groups that oppose the move by the Southbury Board of Selectmen toward allowing use of the land for a middle school. The three groups which want to preserve the site as a park are Southbury Land Trust, Rural Preservation Advisory Committee, and “Save the Park” neighborhood group.

After the selectmen voted 4-2 to call a referendum on selling the park, Land Trust President Tom Crider said, “It will come as a shock to many people to discover that what is a park today may not be a park tomorrow.” In 1997, Southbury citizens voted 2-1 in a referendum that they wanted the town to buy open space to preserve the rural character of the town, and they were willing to pay higher taxes to make it so.

At the September 7 selectmen’s meeting, First Selectman Alfie Candido and Selectman David Mathieu took the opposite view, saying they preferred putting the school on park land rather than using land that is on the tax rolls. Selectman Jeff Hughes, chairman of the Rural Preservation Advisory Committee appointed by the selectmen, disagreed, saying open space should be preserved in perpetuity.

The public is invited to hike in Hidden Pond Park and decide for itself whether it should be a park or a school site. The Land Trust suggests that hikers gather at 1:30 in the parking lot on the Library side of the Town Hall to form carpools to drive to the park, which is at the intersection of Old Waterbury and Bucks Hill roads, because parking space at the park itself is limited.

The Land Trust has scheduled three other Sunday hikes to be led by Ben Metcalf and Gerry Ivers: October 8, at Bassett’s Paradise Hill Preserve; October 15, Hike-A-Thon at Platt Farm and Platt Park; and October 22 around Janie Pierce Pond and on Shortt’s Farm. Contact John Middleton, 264-0368, for additional information.