Town officials this week approved a contract designed to improve pedestrian access to a recently reimagined area within Waveny that will serve as a new destination for park visitors.
The Board of Selectmen voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a $95,000 contract with a Norwalk-based company to reconstruct a new trail in the “cornfields” area near the southeastern corner of Waveny.
The town will pay $45,000 toward the project, while the nonprofit Waveny Park Conservancy will donate the remaining $50,000, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann.
“The [Waveny Park] Conservancy is excited about this because they’ve done a lot of work on the cornfield and want to drive traffic to it,” Mann said during the Board’s regular meeting, held at Town Hall.
Ultimately, the Conservancy’s vision for the cornfields is to create an area with trails, seating and wildflower meadows, officials have said.
A part historically of the cleared farmland that composed much of Waveny prior to the town’s acquisition of the land in 1967, the cornfields area had been a wildflower meadow largely left alone until several years ago, when it was leveled to serve as a staging ground for material dredged from Mead and Mill Ponds, officials have said.
During the meeting, First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of the contract with Hussey Bros. Excavating. The $95,000 total includes about $7,500 in contingency funds.
This project includes the reconstruction of a trail running from Waveny Pond Road to the Waveny Loop Trail passing from the east of the cornfield. The main focus is the excavation and installation of stone material and processed aggregate base as well as drainage installation, according to a supplementary memo from the Department of Public Works.
According to Mann, the trail in question will be about eight feet wide.
This is again a huge waste of money for this town. How could this possibly cost 95,000 dollars just to make some trails when there are already trails back there and a “seating area” probably just a couple wooden benches and some flowers how is that almost 100,000 dollars I do not understand. This town just loves to waste money on stupid stuff like this, How about taking care of the roads that have been torn up for years prior to the gas line work.
Agree! Although the Conservancy uses monies raised on Waveny Park, just how many bids came in?