Park plans paint ‘bigger picture’
Town outlines 10-year blueprint for all facilities
BETHEL — Emma and Michael Kozlowski have gone to Parloa Park since childhood.
Last Thursday, they brought their 2-year-old Ryan and 2-day-old Reagan to the park, where kids play on the same metal merry-go-round they did in their youth.
Nearly all the paint has chipped off the wooden bleachers by the baseball field. While some playground equipment has been replaced since the Kozlowskis were kids, new play sets are needed, officials said.
Preliminary plans envision installing new play sets and adding a splash pad — something Emma Kozlowski said her son Ryan would enjoy.
“He would love that,” she said.
The splash pad would go where the basketball court is, while that court would move to the baseball field’s spot. A new baseball field would be installed at Mitchell Park, while a foot bridge and renovated bathrooms are also proposed.
Improvements like these are outlined for all of Bethel’s parks and fields in the draft of a master plan that could shape what these facilities look like in 10 years. The town is short three athletic fields, while its parks could use face lifts, officials said.
“I hope a lot of these things go through because it seems really exciting,” said Emma Kozlowski, who goes to Parloa and Meckauer parks frequently.
The town has upgraded these facilities in piecemeal over the years, but the park system as a whole has not changed much in three decades, First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker said. Meanwhile, the town’s population has ballooned.
“There is growing demand for more recreational opportunities,” he said. “It boils down to a quality of life issue. Just like you want to have really good schools, you want to have recreational opportunities for people who live here.”
The draft of the plan includes at most $16 million worth of possible projects, such as maintaining trails, upgrading parking lots and playground equipment, and enhancing the connection between parks. The most controversial ideas will likely be a turf field and a community pool, projects voters have previously rejected in referendums.
But town officials do not expect all projects to be completed over the next 10 years. Some of the ideas, such as the $2.5 million plan for a full synthetic field with lighting, press box and 500seat bleachers at Rockwell Field, are ambitious.
“A lot of it is doable if you scale back some of these things,” Knickerbocker said.
The Parks and Recreation Commission plans to narrow down and prioritize the ideas for a final plan and is seeking community input. A public forum held last month attracted a handful of residents.
“This gives us a big picture of the parks,” said Eileen Earle, director of the Parks and Recreation Department. “We can decide whether we want to try for the big picture or just do part of them.”
Other ideas include installing exercise equipment, such as a pull-up station or crossfit equipment, along the walking path at Meckauer Park. Exercise equipment is becoming an “up and coming” offering at parks and trails, Earle said.
“Our trail right now is very widely used by a lot of walkers and runners,” she said. “That would add a feature to the park.”
She said she would be happy with three-quarters or even half of the ideas being completed.
“It’s going to come down to funding,” she said, adding grants or donations could help pay for some projects.
Funding is a problem for towns across the state, said Thomas Sheil, of Milone and MacBroom, who is helping Bethel with its master plan. ‘Voodoo words’
One of the most polarizing items in the draft could be the pool at Meckauer Park, which the plan estimates would cost between
$4 million to $5 million. Earle described a community pool as “voodoo words” in town because of how contentious the idea has become over the decades.
Voters have rejected installing a pool at least twice, including in the
1990s when a plan to build one at no cost to the town failed narrowly, Knickerbocker said. Donations and fundraising would have paid for the construction of pool and memberships would have supported it, but residents rejected it because they worried about maintenance costs and safety concerns, he said.
There was a community effort around 2011 to build a pool, but plans floundered. Still, the concept remains hotly contested in town. Posts on the town’s popular Facebook group about a pool often have upward of 200 comments.
Knickerbocker said a pool would be “wonderful resource” and appears inevitable one day.
“We have a growing population,” he said. “There are more children. There is certainly more need to learn water safety and have an outlet for recreation. I think it's just a matter of time.”
But the Bethel Action Committee opposed previous pool propoals and would fight another, said Billy Michael, founder of the watchdog organization. The town already needs to pay off the $14.4 million police station and $65.8 million renovations to Rockwell and Johnson elementary schools, plus residents must deal with increasing state taxes, he said. Fields Another contentious proposal could be the turf field, which at one point was estimated to cost $750,000.
Voters rejected in 2018 the capital plan that included $979,000 to resurface the track and add turf at DeSantis Field at the high school. Many attributed the defeat of the capital plan to the turf.
Since then, the Bethel All Sports Booster Club has tried to raise money for the field, with donors committing shy of $150,000, said Mark Caron, the schools’ athletic director.
Turf fields can be used in bad weather and would prevent the school and Parks and Recreation from having to cancel activities on their grass fields, Caron said. Bethel is the only town in the area without a turf field.
“The fields we have are getting overused,” Caron said. “Because they’re getting overused the quality of the fields—as much as Parks and Rec does all they can and then some—deteriorate.”
Research from Milone and MacBroom showed the town is three athletic fields short based on how much its existing facilities are used, said Greg Henry, co-president of the club and member of the Parks and Recreation Commission. Turf fields can be used more frequently and are worth more than grass fields.
“By getting the turf field, that could virtually eliminate that demand problem,” Henry said.
The number of people using the parks has stayed about the same over the years, but the use of fields has increased, Earle said. This is because of the growing popularity of lacrosse, while soccer is now played in the fall and spring, she said.
Between 140 to 150 kids play through the Bethel Youth Lacrosse Association, with three to four divisions for boys and girls, said Paul Ryan, president of the club. Each division practices two to three times a week, in addition to games, he said.
The town does a great job giving the teams access to the fields, but it is still a challenge, Ryan said.
“It’s a bit of a juggling game and a scheduling nightmare,” he said.