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Norwalk council approves Woods Pond trail project and establishes recreation and sports activities account
Summary
Council authorized a contract for Norwalk’s urban trails project (Woods Pond/Lakewood sites) and voted to create a dedicated recreation and sports activities account to track program revenues and expenses; both items passed unanimously.
The Norwalk Common Council on Nov. 17 approved a contract with Greenway Property Services for the Norwalk Urban Trails project and established a recreation and sports activities account intended to track fees and expenditures for recreation programs.
Councilmember Young introduced the trails item, saying recreation staff had held community meetings and worked with neighbors. Robert Stowers, director of recreation and parks, described a multi-step public engagement process and said the project follows an existing master plan. Project manager Ken Hughes said the Lakewood site is “approximately 5 acres” and the East Rock/Woods Pond site is “about 18 acres,” and that after resident feedback the Woods Pond trail scope was cut roughly in half and separate parking expansions were removed.
Hughes described the maintenance plan: “We’re gonna treat these trails the same way we do up at Cranberry Park. We’ll have staff that’ll visit the trail once every week, week and a half,” and the plan includes trash receptacles and gates to secure the parking lot when the site is not in use. Councilmembers expressed support for buffers and neighborhood “friends” groups to help monitor the sites.
Separately, the council discussed and approved creating a Recreation and Sports Activities account to retain program fees and match them with the associated expenses. Committee members and the finance director said the fund will increase transparency about how program fees are spent; the proposal also identified a systems-analyst position in parks to track program revenue and reporting.
Both the Greenway contract authorization (not to exceed $724,828.50 for grant project 4463R) and the recreation account were approved by voice vote; the trail item passed unanimously. Councilmembers said the changes were intended to preserve natural aesthetics while improving access and stewardship.
Next procedural steps include standard contract execution by the mayor and program reporting to the council and board of estimate and taxation as required by the account authorization.
