- Details
- Category: Past Issues
River Trail
lighting
funding
pursued
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- Just as a house is always a work in progress, so too is the town's River Trail.
The River Trail extension, which extends the walkway from the Breault pedestrian bridge to the new farmer's market, awaits its ribbon cutting at the beginning of June. But other parts of the River Trail are in need of some renovation and so the search for grant money and the work continues.
Community Development Director Delpha M. Very said the bids for the River Trail extension, which runs some 1,300 feet, came in higher than expected so the trail width was reduced to 6 feet across and the light fixtures were dropped from the project. The project is funded by a state Department of Environmental Protection Greenways program grant for $72,000.
Very is looking for more grant money to put the light fixtures not only along the trail extension but to replace the light fixtures that have seen better days along the trail.
"Some of the lamps are broken and they do not make that model anymore," Very said. "We need to replace all of them." Currently she is looking at the details of light posts that would require less maintenance. For example, if the posts were raised up four inches, on a concrete pad, for example, the post bases would be less likely damaged by maintenance work around the lamp posts.
She did not know how many lamp posts would be replaced.
The River Trail extension, meanwhile, is finished. Crews recently seeded along either side of the trail. "It came out beautiful," Very said. The contractor built the fence along the river himself to save some money and he built it to match the guard rail type fence that is there already.