15 July 2021

By Göran R Buckhorn

Connecticut state funding gives the Mystic River Boathouse Park a boost, Göran R Buckhorn writes.

In late June, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont announced that the state had awarded the town of Stonington a $753,889 state grant to clean up the environmental contamination on the site for the Mystic River Boathouse Park.

Stonington First Selectwoman Danielle Chesebrough told the local newspaper The Day that the new state funding combined with the approximately $500,000 that remains from the $2.2 million in bonding money means the town should have enough money to complete the project.

Chesebrough said that now that the town has the money to complete the park, it will be easier for The Friends of Stonington Crew and the Stonington Community Rowing Foundation to raise the money they need to renovate a house on the site on Greenmanville Avenue and build a boathouse. The Boathouse will be used by the Stonington High School rowing team and a community rowing program.

“This is a really good day for Stonington,” Chesebrough said according to The Day.

The grant will for sure be a great boost for this project, which ran into problems almost from the start. The initial design plan of the boathouse was heavily criticized on social media. Then, when the state Historic Preservation Office in June 2019 stopped the demolition of the old building that was on the site, the architect firm that was contracted to build the boathouse no longer wanted to be part of the project.

Then the pandemic struck.

Now the project seems to be back on track.