Info Session On Ives Trail & Greenway

DANBURY — A public information session on the proposed Ives Trail and Greenway will take place on Thursday, October 6, at 6 pm, at Tarrywile Mansion. The meeting will provide an update on the progress of the trail and greenway.

Bethel First Selectman Alice Hutchinson, Ridgefield First Selectman Rudy Marconi and host Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton will make opening comments. Bethel resident Rick DeWitt and Jack Kozuchowski of the Danbury Health Department, founders of this visionary plan for a trail connecting greenspace through Northern Fairfield County, will give a presentation.

Tarrywile Mansion is within Tarrywile Park, at 70 Southern Boulevard (opposite Immaculate High School).

The City of Danbury Connecticut is developing the Ives Trail Greenway as a regional trail that links preserves in Ridgefield, Danbury and Bethel. Mayor Boughton announced the appointment of a committee to study and create the Ives Trail in July 2003.

The trail will extend from Terra Haute in Bethel and Rogers Park Pond in east Danbury, northerly past the Charles Ives Homestead, and then westerly through Tarrywile Park. It will continue southwest  through Wooster Mountain State Park to the existing trail system of Bennetts Pond and Pine Mountain Parks in Ridgefield.

The Ives Trail Greenway will create a continuous open space corridor across the southern tier of Danbury. By continuing south from Terra Haute which straddles the Danbury-Bethel-Redding line, it may be possible with a short road walk to access the Saugatuck Valley Trail System. This trail system extends south parallel to Route 58, and ultimately has direct access to Devils Den in Weston.

The Ives Trail is named in honor of Charles Ives (1874-1954), a Danbury native noted for his original classical compositions who, in 1947, won a Pulitzer Prize for his Symphony #3.

Visit CTpath.org for information about the meeting and background about the proposed trail.