Stonington officials pledge transparency with possible Pawcatuck River walkway project

An artist's rendering of a proposed pedestrian walkway from Veterans Park at the Pawcatuck River bridge south to Donahue Park.

By Joe Wojtas   Day staff writer
j.wojtas@theday.com

Stonington — Town officials have pledged to create a new committee or an Economic Development Commission subcommittee that would adhere to all Freedom of Information Act requirements as it oversees the potential development of a pedestrian walkway along the Pawcatuck River.

First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough said Thursday the committee will be “the most transparent thing you’ve ever seen” while EDC Chairman Dave Hammond stressed that any section of the walkway would go through a public approval process.

“There’s not going to be any eminent domain, any taking of any private property,” he said.

Chesebrough and Hammond announced the creation of a committee after some Pawcatuck residents, mostly on social media, expressed concern that the public had been left out of the preliminary discussions among a small group of EDC members and residents about how to possibly move the idea forward.

The neighbors also were concerned about the group’s discussion and initial effort to create an 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that would oversee the project but not be subject to FOI regulations, such as holding public meetings and posting agendas and minutes. That idea has now been put aside.

The EDC’s informal working group met late last fall but the EDC and selectmen have not made any formal decisions about the plan except to ask that the Board of Finance include $250,000 spread out over the 2020-21 and 2021-22 budgets to provide partial funding for the initial 400-foot-long section of walkway from the Pawcatuck River Bridge to Donahue Park. The town would seek state and federal grants for the remaining cost.

The finance board has not yet made a decision on including the first $150,000 of the funding in its recommended 2020-21 budget and will listen to comments at its April 9 public hearing.

The group also had obtained a tax identification number as the first step toward forming the 501(c)3c. The organization, however, has not been formed.

Some residents also expressed concern that the walkway would go behind their homes and they would lose property but that was along a possible future phase from Donahue Park to the Mechanic Street mills, a development town officials say would be a decade and millions of dollars in the future, if ever.

Chesebrough said the initial walkway discussions were among a group of “excited volunteers trying to make something great for the town. There was nothing malicious about it.”

Both Hammond and Chesebrough met with concerned residents this week. In addition, Chesebrough has scheduled an informal discussion of the issue with residents at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Town Hall. Hammond said he also would be calling an EDC meeting and invite concerned neighbors to discuss how best to move forward with forming a group to oversee the possible project.

Both Chesebrough and Hammond acknowledged the controversy was a learning experience.

“Our first step is to make sure we’re talking with residents,” Chesebrough said.

She likened the creation of a separate committee to the one overseeing the development of the Mystic River Boathouse Park, which includes not just board and commission members but members of the public offering a range of perspectives. Hammond said he prefers that approach rather than a subcommittee of just EDC members.

The initial phase of the walkway is envisioned as the first part of a possible Pawcatuck River Greenway project that could extend the pedestrian walkway north along the river to the so-called circus lot off Noyes Avenue and south to the Mechanic Street mills. The EDC also envisions a pedestrian bridge over the river at the circus lot, which would provide easy access to the Westerly train station.

Hammond has said EDC members feel a riverwalk would play a key role in the ongoing revitalization of downtown Pawcatuck, as similar projects have done in communities across the country.