BETHEL – Members of the Beach Committee were ecstatic Wednesday after the town’s new groundwater-fed swimming pond began filling itself with clear water.

For Chairman Don Bennett, who has championed the $300,000 pond and park project since the idea surfaced about five years ago, it’s a project that’s well worth the wait and expense.

“I wondered at several times if this would ever get built, but it’s all about the kids and kids swimming, and we’re trying to produce a quality project,” he said Thursday afternoon.

“I don’t want to come out here and get silt in my shorts,” he added.

To keep the pond free of siltation, general contractor Bancroft Corp. put down a geotextile fabric and covered the entire pond bottom with 12 to 15 inches of high quality sand, said Town Manager Scott Cole.

“It’s a groundwater fed system and this filtration will stop clay and silt from becoming suspended in the water. We’re very happy we got clear water,” he said.

Eight days of digging by subcontractor Cross Excavation of Bethel, which began two weeks ago, followed three weeks of round-the-clock pumping at 220 well points drilled to a depth of 20 feet, Cole said. That enabled a dry dig.

But once the pumps were shut off, groundwater began refilling the completed hole. However, the rate was too slow and seeping springs began eroding the sandy bottom.

So general contractor Bancroft Corp. began pumping water from adjacent Chapman Brook to fill the pond to a point where back pressure would allow a slower infiltration of groundwater and prevent the erosion, Cole added.

The pond, which will have an outflow, has a maximum depth of 12 feet and a sand beach slope that will provide a depth of two feet out to 32 feet from water’s edge.

And while the $300,000 project won’t be completed and ready for use until next spring, Bennett was already envisioning more ideas for what’s been dubbed Angevine Park.

The park is named in honor of Ernest and Alberta Angevine, landowners who donated five acres of land off the North Road to the town for the one-acre pond. Bennett said the Angevine family had a vision of having a great place to go swim and have a picnic at a spot reasonably close to town.

“The economics of this lessened quickly when the Angevine family came forward. They were the catalyst. So the biggest thanks is to that family. They deserve a great big thank you,” Bennett said.

The park and its sandy pool are 2.2 miles from Bethel Village.

In addition to the swimming pond, the park will also have a large picnic area, parking for 40 cars, a footbridge over adjacent Chapman Brook, and a changing facility.

In addition to the Angevine donation, taxpayers have already paid $170,000 as their share of project costs, Cole said. Private donations have accounted for the remainder. And town officials will be budgeting an estimated $10,000 annually for operating costs and groundskeeping.

The idea to construct a pond came after town officials tried unsuccessfully to buy a section of Songo Pond beach in Bethel.

“This new swimming pond is proof that a town of 2,500 people can build something that can satisfy a need. Now we can carry on with new ideas and make the park a bigger and better asset for the town,” Bennett added.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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