By Lisa Peterson

The Newtown Bridle Lands Trust was busy clearing a new trail Monday which will help create an important link from the old mica mine to Poverty Hollow Road.

An old woods road was moved 50 feet from its existing location in a driveway of a new home built on Purdy Station Road to town open space. It was part of an agreement between the Conservation Commission and the developer, Boggs Hill Construction.

This new trail is key to making a whole section of Newtown’s trail system work. Riders and hikers can exit from the mica mine travel 200 yards up to the new trail off Old Purdy Hill Station Road. The new trail will empty onto Purdy Station Road. After traveling about 100 yards one can make a left onto the Camelot trail and eventually end up at Poverty Hollow Road, said NBLT member David McCauley, who was on-hand for the trail clearing.

When NBLT members arrived to clear the trail they has found some vandalism, where someone had built a stonewall blocking the proposed trail and thrown old Christmas trees and brush to block the passage.

“A neighbor called all upset,” Conservation official Stephen Driver said. “ I came out here to make sure that the developer is living up to his obligation to create this new trail on town open space. We weren’t going to grant the permit with a house that close to a right of way. So the town and the builder came to an agreement to move the access way over to a parcel of town owned land next to the lot.

In addition, the builder was responsible for creating an easement between town property and Purdy Station Road across a small section of the proposed driveway, according to Driver.

“I’m just here to enforce what was put into place and what was agreed upon between the town and the developer,” Driver said of his visit to the site.

Karen Demont, a member of the Newtown Bridle Lands Trust, was on-site to see where the trail was being created. Knowing where the original is helps for future trail clearings, she said.

“It is so important to make a greenways in this town,” Demont said as she was clearing away stones that had been placed to block the new trail. “The NBLT is currently fighting two high profile cases in court regarding easements off of Greenleaf Farm Road and Equestrian Ridge which grant access to Huntingtown state Park for riders and hikers. It is a shame that it comes to this.”

Working with Mike’s Tree Service of Monroe, the NBLT left a line of trees that will create a screen blocking the trail to the nearby house. In the summer you won’t be able to even see the trail, McCauley said.