WILTON — Methodically placing and replacing rocks to restore the stone wall at Kineowatha Park on Wednesday, men occasionally looked back to see the neat, straightened structure already completed in front of the High Street park.

“We have a nice park here and we want to keep it that way,” volunteer Steve Harris said as he and Wilton Parks and Recreation Director Frank Donald shored up the outside portion of the wall and filled in the middle.

It’s work that Harris has become skilled at. He’s built nearly 800 feet of rock walls around his Weld Road property.

While watching Harris do that work, Donald asked if there was any chance of hiring him to help restore walls at the park. Harris responded, “’No chance but I’ll come and do it for nothing,’” Donald said. He brought his tractor with him.

Together the men have worked close to 40 hours over the last few months, normally during the morning.

“I only work when it’s nice,” Harris said.

Sometimes the outside of the wall needs only to be straightened and reinforced. Sometimes it requires tearing the rocks out and rebuilding a section, Donald said.

“It’s hard work. You know you’ve done a day’s work,” he said, lifting a large stone into place.

The wall must date back to when Kineowatha was a girls camp in the 1940-1950s, Donald said. Time has taken its toll on the structure wall around what is now a recreational park for residents.

Once the sides are done, smaller stones are added through the middle of the approximately 2-plus-foot-wide wall. When there aren’t enough, the town’s highway crew appears with a bucket loader of them to fill and flatten the middle, Donald said. The crew, under the direction of foreman John Welch, has been quick to help and saved the project money, he added.

In these days of budget cuts there’s less manpower and the work just doesn’t get done, Donald said, while expressing appreciation for the work and equipment supplied by volunteers. A large group from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints raked and cleaned the park last Saturday, he said.

“It shows the quality of the individuals we have in town,” Donald said. “We live our motto: Wilton’s a nice place to live, to work and to play.”

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