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Politics & Government

Ives Trail May Cross into Bethel After All

Matt Knickerbocker would like Bethel to be part of the trail

First Selectman Matt Knickerbocker would like to see the Ives Trail blaze through Bethel.

“I am personally one hundred percent for it,” he said. “I would like to see the Ives Trail go through that piece of property that's up there in Terre Haute.”

Long in the planning the Ives Trail is a multi-town effort spearheaded by Danbury. Original plans for the trail had called for a 15 mile hiking trail to be part of 2,700-acre greenway that cut through the Terre Haute land in Bethel, across Tarrywile Park and Wooster Mountain State Park in Danbury, to Pine Mountain and Bennett's Pond State Park in Ridgefield. Early on, planners also decided to have the trail cross into Redding. The Bethel portion of the trail encountered opposition and trail planners decided to route the trail around Bethel.

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Knickerbocker's predecessor Robert Burke was opposed to having the trail cross through Bethel. In October trail organizers were unsure of Knickerbocker's stance on the issue and were resigned to the idea that the Ives Trail would not pass through Bethel. In a recent interview with patch.com, Knickerbocker sought to clarify his support of the trail coming to bethel.

“I think that would just be fabulous and I think it would be a great asset to Bethel,” he said. “It would be better if Bethel was a good neighbor and allowed [the trail].”

Find out what's happening in Bethelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Knickerbocker said that to move forward with plans for the trail to go through Bethel the town would need a proposal from the Ives Trail Task Force. He said that although proposals may have been sent to the town in the past that was during Burke's tenure and his office currently has no record of a proposal.

“There's probably insurance issues that the town of Bethel would have to handle in allowing it to go through, I would imagine that there's some sort of legal process that it would have to go through but in order to start that I would have to have a trail map [and proposal],” Knickerbocker said. “I almost feel like I have to apologize to the Ives Task Force that is putting this together because they probably already did this once.”

Knickerbocker said that once he had a proposal he thought the town would accept it. He said that if there was strong opposition to the idea of the trail going through Bethel it might have to be approved by a town meeting or a vote, but he didn't think it necessarily would.

“I suppose we could see some people opposed to it but I don't know why,” he said.

Mike Cunningham, of Danbury, who is Chairman of the Ives Trail Task Force said in light of Knickerbocker's support “we are trying to set up an appointment between several of the task force members and Mr. Knickerbocker.”

Cunningham said that the current route goes within about 50 feet of the Terre Haute property. If Bethel allowed the trail he said they would still keep the current alternate route and have it meet up with the trail that goes through Bethel creating a loop.

“We will not quit the alternate route. It would make an interesting loop,” he said.

As for when the trail will be completed Cunningham said there's been so many delays and setbacks along the way that it has hard to say.

“I wish I could tell you, hopefully by spring,” he said.

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