Mystic River Boathouse Park
July 27, 2024 2:00 pm
By Carrie Czerwinski, Special to The Day
Mystic ― After an eight year wait, residents may finally see a long-promised waterfront park come to life in the coming months.
But there are still some financial hurdles to clear.
“Hopefully we can see shovels in the ground in late fall,” said First Selectman Danielle Chesebrough late last week.
While preparing to send the $4.8 million Mystic River Boathouse Park project out for bid this summer, the town is simultaneously awaiting results of two living shoreline grant applications totaling $1.14 million dollars that could offset the town’s current project deficit of $1.18 million.
The project began in 2016 after residents approved $2.2 million in bonding to purchase the 1.5-acre Greenmanville Avenue site just north of Mystic Seaport Museum. With environmental remediation grants, the town has funded $3.67 million of the newly estimated $4.85 million project.
Chesebrough noted that prices have risen substantially since 2016, and though the town has been proactive about seeking grant funding and could apply $300,000 in remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding to the project, there could still be a shortfall.
“I want to be very transparent. I just had this conversation with the Board of Finance last week, and we might be talking more about it in the fall,” she said, explaining that although the project was moving in a very positive direction, and the town was seeking all avenues to avoid it, there was still the possibility it could require additional taxpayer dollars.
Chesebrough said the bid process will start this summer and probably take until early fall to complete, at which point work like grading the site and removal of a shed on the property could be completed before work pauses for the winter.
The pause would allow Stonington Community Rowing Inc. to begin work on a two-story boathouse which will house the Jim Dietz Rowing Center.
As part of the project, SCRI will pay to relocate the historic Lovelace House and connect it, via a vestibule, to the future Hart Perry Boathouse on the property before turning it over to the town at the cost of $1.
On Friday, Secretary and Director of Rowing for SCRI, John Thornell, said that SCRI is carefully coordinating with the town to ensure the two simultaneous projects do not interfere with each other. He said the boathouse could be completed as early as spring of 2025.
“We don’t want the town to finish the park and then we go in with heavy machinery and build the boathouse, so we have to sync our schedules,” he said.
He said after the town clears and prepares the site this fall, SCRI will begin construction, and once complete, the town will be able to resume work to get the park ready to open as soon as fall of 2025.
He said the organization is focused on a goal of raising $500,000 by this fall but can start construction on the $2.5 million project regardless.
He noted that SCRI currently has $1.6 million in donations and estimates an additional $300,000 in unspecified dollar amount pledges which will cover work like pouring foundations, moving the Lovelace House, and constructing the boathouse. If necessary, parts of the project could be postponed while SCRI raises the rest of the money.
“Even if we need to phase the rowing center project, having a boathouse to store equipment and to train athletes is a major step toward having our own home and, ultimately, offering rowing programs to the community,” Thornell said.