Thank You For Your Support – We’re Almost There With Phase 5!
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!
