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A Direct Water View

As First Selectman Christine Goupil recently wrote in Clinton Events, “Our downtown is looking up” with a new train station, new uses for the old Unilever building, blue/greenway trail, etc., but we could add another.

We should improve the direct water view uniquely available from 54 East Main Street if you look hard between the town buildings. You must now peek around and between the Clinton Town Hall, the Town Office Annex, and the Chamber of Commerce building to get a glimpse of the marsh, Indian River, and Long Island Sound in the distance.

Also hidden behind these town buildings is a little-used and probably little-known 18-acre nature walkway called the Elliott Preserve and a small boat dock called McCusker Landing, both gems in there own right. So, what can we do to achieve an unobstructed water view?

The building housing the Chamber of Commerce between the two Town Hall brick buildings should be razed or moved and replaced with a new, open space landscaped as a waterfront town green extending from Main Street to the Elliott Preserve.

This new open space would allow direct visual and pedestrian access to a water view of the marsh, Indian River, and Long Island sound in the distance. (Everyone loves a water view!) This would require a significant investment and a building in the historic district, but this idea should be on the town agenda.

A direct water view from Clinton’s Main Street fits with the first selectman’s vision and would increase foot traffic to downtown businesses, too. All boats go up on a rising tide.

Don Epperson

Clinton