- Stonington: A new, 40-foot-long bridge at Hewitt Pond has made the popular trout-fishing spot more easily accessible to fly-fishermen and returned the Narragansett Trail to its earlier route. The bridge, over the spillway of the pond's dam, replaces an old walkway that the state DEP declared unsafe two years ago, said Deborah Fitts, a member of Oldhaven Associates, a group of descendants of Brower and Antoinette Hewitt.
- The group owns Oldhaven Farm, a former dairy farm on which the private Hewitt Pond is located, at the foot of Cossaduck Hill Road and Route 2. Fitts, a Richmond, Mass., resident, said the pond is about an acre to acre-and-a-half in size and has for decades been leased to the state for trout fly-fishing.
- The state stocks the pond with trout every spring, Fitts said. Following removal of the walkway, there was a temporary walkway, but without a permanent one, Fitts said the pond was difficult to access “for older, less mobile fishermen.”
- Lack of a walkway also forced a rerouting of the Narragansett Trail, which connects to trails in the Pachaug State Forest, according to Mike Goodwin of Gales Ferry, who is president of the Thames Valley Chapter of the nonprofit Trout Unlimited. Fitts said Goodwin came up with the idea to apply for a state grant to install a bridge where the walkway had been.
- The total cost of the new bridge, including volunteer labor, was $33,443, Fitts said. The bridge was installed June 7. (by Jenna Cho, The Day). 6/23
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