03/15/1999

Pequabuckcan begreat placeto play

By

By JACKIE MAJERUS

The Bristol Press

BRISTOL -- People are playing on the Pequabuck River, but not enough, according to participants at a recent workshop on the river's recreational aspects.

"I see people swimming up by Rockwell Park, particularly since the lagoon's been having problems," said city Councilman Chet Reed.

"You can see people fishing any time of the day."

Slowly, the river is rebounding, according to Reed, and emerging from the position of "nonentity" to that of a valued resource.

"We've made a lot of progress," Reed said, but "there's a ways to go."

Mary Moulton, an activist with

the Pequabuck River Watershed Association, said she can smell the river when she drives by it in Forestville.

"It makes me think twice" about using it for recreation, she said. But she added, "In places, it's very pretty to look at."

The meeting was part of a series hosted by the association's um-

brella group, the Pequabuck River Organization. Along with private business groups and government agencies, the watershed group is part of the organization.

The workshops have been open to the public. They've drawn few "regular" folks, but a couple showed up Thursday. To boost interest in paddling on the Pequabuck, local resident Bob Merriman advocated the purchase of a couple of canoes for the public.

"Once you get someone on that river, the river belongs to ‘em," Merriman said.

Alan Weiner, Bristol's city planner, said, "The river has a schizophrenic personality." In some places along the river, Weiner said, there are parks, while in other spots it's more of an "industrial receptacle."

The trick, according to Weiner, is to figure out how to reduce the negative perception of the river while increasing the positive view.

While the group talked about physical access to the river, they also discussed visual access because in many places, the Pequabuck can't be seen from the road. One place the city needs to see more of the Pequabuck is downtown, said Weiner.

In too many places, the river is without a protective buffer of trees, shrubs or other plants that would act like a sieve, keeping pollutants out of the Pequabuck, said Carl Swanson, president of the Pequabuck River Watershed Association.

The next -- and final -- river workshop is Thursday at 4 p.m. at Manross Library.

The topic will be historical aspects of the river.