Blessed with a Generous Match!

We Just Received a $25,000 Grant will Match all Give Local Contributions NEXT WEEK to Support the Extension to Bantam

Dear Friend,

Very exciting times these days at the Greenway!  We hope to share more and more news with you over the next week!

But first, a reminder to all of our supporters that the GiveLocal 36 hour campaign will begin next week – It starts at 7am on Tuesday, April 25 and runs until 7pm on Wednesday, April 26! Don’t miss it – you can access our page directly HERE to make contributions. 

Donate Here

Spread the Word! GiveLocal is a wonderful 36 hour event for so many non-profits. Support the Greenway and find other organizations.

And to make things even better, this year we will match all contributions up to $25,000! This was made possibly by an anonymous donation made earlier this week to support our Next Bridge to Everywhere – Crossing the Bantam River. Therefore, if there was ever a time to provide financial support to the Greenway, this is it – Help us raise $50,000!

For some perspective, we have already begun work on the next ambitious 1.9 mile extension of the Greenway known as Phase 4 – The Trail to Bantam. It will start at the current end of the Greenway at North Shore Road and will travel south, cross the Bantam River, cross High Bridge Road, cross Bantam Lake Road and terminate at Stoddard Road near the Litchfield Sewer Department. Similar to most Greenway trail improvements, this extension will also run along the former Shepaug Railroad bed on land owned by Eversource Energy, but will also include a new pedestrian bridge crossing the Bantam River. We’ve done extensive pre-planning and hope to focus our efforts this summer on design work and permitting.  Several grant proposals to CT DEEP and various foundations have also been submitted earlier this year to help fund the anticipated substantial construction cost. Not surprisingly, most of the grants we are pursuing are matching grants, therefore we anticipate we will need to raise well over $100,000 to fund our share of the project.

Therefore, our focus this year at Give Local is to help fund Phase 4- the Trail to Bantam! Now we can double every dollar you contribute up to $25,000 – if there was ever a time to be generous, this is it!

DON’T FORGET – NEXT TUES/WED – DOUBLE YOUR GIFT!

While we are SO excited to see the Russell Street Extension get underway, we are even more excited to see Phase 4 get funded given how much it will offer. It will nearly double the length of the greenway and connect the Bantam town center with Litchfield, will provide safe pedestrian access from both school districts, allow neighbors to walk or bike safely to Bantam for dinner or ice cream. We envision the entire extension will be ADA accessible and envision additional trail head parking along the path. This project is ambitious and we look forward to sharing more details about it soon.

Right now we are focused on Give Local NEXT WEEK – DON’T FORGET

Looking Forward to Phase 5  – Thank You for your support Monday!

Here are some details about the Russell Street Extension in case you missed them!

Dear Friend,

We appreciate all the letters and public statements made in support on of the Phase 5 – Russell Street Greenway Extension. Our application was continued until May 2nd as we revise and finalized some of our agreements with the Town of Litchfield, the Litchfield Land Trust and Eversource. We are very encouraged and thinking positive about the project planning and getting construction underway.

We thought it would be useful for those who may not be as familiar about the project, to shed some light on what we are so excited about and looking forward to for this summer.

The Russell Street Extension, known as Phase 5, will utilize the existing former Shepaug railroad bed, that is now owned by Eversource, and extend the existing Litchfield Community Greenway from the intersection at South Lake Street / White Woods Road to the former Litchfield Railroad Station, that now serves as the newly renovated headquarters of the Litchfield Land Trust. This will serve as the future trail “head-end” for the Greenway, fittingly at the train station. A new parking area with 14 parking spots will be improved in the rear of the building to be use both by the Greenway and the Litchfield Land Trust. If folks are interested in more information, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

In 2023 the Greenway will be More Accessible than Ever!

With the addition of new parking and wooden rail barricades, the new area should be very inviting to the community with close proximity to town and Center School. The gravel trail will be flat and protected with a split rail fence from any adjacent traffic. New crosswalks will be painted at Russell Street and South Lake Street to allow a safe connection to what many of us know and love as the Ghost Trail, which serves today as the beginning of the Greenway. This Phase 5 extension has been mostly funded with the support of private donations from individuals and the Seherr-Thoss Foundations as well as the recent award of ARPA funds from the Town of Litchfield. We look forward to completing construction this summer once all approvals are in place.

Thank you again to all our supporter, especially those who came out to support us on Monday night and/or wrote personal notes to the commission. We have so much more to tell our community about our next extension, but didn’t want to fail to share actual details of what is right in front of us!