Volunteer Emerges For Trails Work—

One Resident Is Eager For A Better

Walk In The Woods

By Kendra Bobowick

Scott Coleman walked into the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting Tuesday, February 10, and handed out a surprise.

Offering the members each a sheet detailing his ideas to jumpstart trail development in town, he also expressed his interest to work on the foot- and bike-paths he would like to see winding through wooded areas.

“I have seen it other places and want to bring it here,” he told the commission. After the past several years of the commission’s stalled attempts to assemble a working trails committee, Mr Coleman spoke encouraging words: “It is my motivation to give back to my community.” He later added, “I would like to push forward and see if I can get involved.”

Welcoming his offer, Commission Chairman Ed Marks had his own good news. “I don’t know if it’s luck or serendipity; this is something [Recreation Director Amy Mangold] has wanted to tackle.” By the time the discussion with Mr Coleman had ended, Mr Marks had extended his help. “The timing is great,” he explained. “I think you’ll have universal support to set up a subcommittee.”

A weekend walk through another town’s trails prompted Mr Coleman to go before the recreation commission. Recounting a weekend earlier in February that found him in Wolfe Park in Monroe, Mr Coleman was on trails leading toward Newtown, but his jaunt ended there. He said, “[In Monroe], you ride the trail and get to Newtown and it’s the end of the line.” He described Monroe’s stretch of a Rails-to-Trails path that follows along old railroad tracks cutting through many towns, including Monroe and Newtown.

Learn more about this trail effort at RailsToTrails.org, which explains, “The mission of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) is to create a nationwide network of trails from former rail lines and connecting corridors to build healthier places for healthier people.” The Monroe Housatonic Railbed Trail was featured as the Trail of the Month in 2006 by the RTC. Its description notes that the pathway ends at the Newtown border.

Mr Coleman thinks that planning and work can change that.

Shuffling an armload of papers, he handed each commission member his ideas drawn out on paper. “I put the plans together and a vision long-term … why can’t we do here what I have seen elsewhere.” After speaking with Ms Mangold and other officials in town recently, Mr Coleman said, “It sounds like we can do something interesting.” Filled with ideas, he mentioned different ways that the work might be accomplished — as an Eagle Scout project, perhaps?

Eager, he said, “We can move this forward and promote it.”

Regarding the Monroe trail that dead-ends in the vicinity of Swamp Road and the Batchelder property, Mr Marks agrees that the Rails-to-Trails does have some room to continue into Newtown. Ms Mangold added, “It’s a substantial piece of property before you even get to Batchelder.” She likes the idea of developing at least that stretch of trail. Mr Marks said, “I would love to see it done.”

Hoping to get things going by September, Mr Coleman wants to “kick things off.”

“That sounds great,” Mr Marks replied.

Mr Marks gave Mr Coleman the good news and bad news about prior efforts to carve out trails in Newtown. Referring to a trails subcommittee he said, “It’s something we’ve never been able to get off the ground.” Conversation would frequently turn to trails during commission meetings in the past several years, but other than using grant and budget funds to establish a trail in the vicinity of Dickinson Park and Elm Drive, larger plans to join Monroe’s Rails-to-Trails route, for one, have never emerged. (See related story about Dickinson-area trail.)