Stepping Over The Town Line To Dive Into Summer

By Nancy K. Crevier

The summer is heating up, but some Newtown residents have still not found a satisfying alternative for swimming since the closing of Dickinson Park pool in 2006. After 50 years, health concerns dictated that the pool be closed two years ago, leaving swimmers in the western half of Newtown without a town pool option.

Treadwell Park pool is located off of Philo Curtis Road, past the junction of Routes 34 and 6 in Sandy Hook. The 25-yard pool has lap lanes, a diving area off of the main pool, and a wading pool for the small fry. It is open from 11 am to 7:30 pm during peak summer hours and is staffed by trained lifeguards. For those in Sandy Hook, it is a good option.

Residents closer to the Route 34/Monroe line are pleased that the town has created a small beach near the marina at Eichler’s Cove. Located at the end of Old Bridge Road off of Route 34, Eichler’s Cove Beach opened this summer. Down a path past the grassy picnic area of the marina, a groomed dirt beach area borders the roped-off swimming area in Lake Zoar. Like Treadwell, the beach is staffed by lifeguards during the hours of operation. Passes for Eichler’s Cove Beach are separate purchases from the Treadwell pool pass.

Both of the public swimming options in Newtown are located in the Sandy Hook section of town, though, leaving western dwellers with a lot of driving to do to reach one of them. If it is going to entail a drive, anyway, some Newtowners have decided to look beyond the town’s borders for a cool spot to take a dip.

“It was love at first sight,” said Cindy Carroll of Newtown. She and her husband, Bob, were looking for someplace to take their family to swim two years ago when they heard about Limekiln Swimming Association in Bethel. “We used to swim at family and friends’ pools, and at one point we had a pool membership. The closing of Dickinson Park pool had a little bit of an effect on our decision to look elsewhere,” said Ms Carroll, who lives in southwestern Newtown.

When they saw the half-acre spring-fed pond that is part of the ten acres owned by the Limekiln Swimming Association, tucked into the hollow of an old lime quarry at the edge of Bethel, they were captivated by the old-fashioned charm of the place. “It is very clean, very safe, and reminded me of a place I had gone to as a child,” said the mother of three young children.

Limekiln Swimming Association has attracted members from Newtown, Bethel, Redding, Danbury, and surrounding communities since it first began with a swimming group renting the one-time mining pond from Redding resident Ray Beaudry in the 1950s, said association president Elaine Kokoska. The group continued to grow, and in 1962 purchased the property.

Limekiln Swimming Association has seen an influx of Newtown residents since the closing of Dickinson Park pool in 2006, said Ms Kokoska. “We have had people tell us that this is the only alternative since Dickinson closed. We have had a lot of inquiries and new members the past two years from Newtown,” she said.

Ms Kokoska has been a member for more than 40 years, and is proud of the manner in which the swimming spot has been maintained by the membership and the effort the group has taken to ensure that the natural beauty of the quarry is not heavily altered. Even with the more than $43,000 worth of maintenance and reclamation work done earlier this summer, including an extended Cape Cod sand beach, the quarry continues to convey a sense of stepping back in time. The upkeep of the pond and surrounding property is 2½ years into the five-year plan of maintenance, she said, and will include improvements to the pond’s drainage, “tweaking” the beach, and putting in a flotation dock in the future. All of the upkeep is to maintain the quality of the water and the beach, and is designed to work in conjunction with the natural surroundings, Ms Kokoska stressed.

The association has a lifeguard on duty seven days a week from 11 am to 5 pm from May to September, but modern conveniences are kept at a minimum. A landline phone is available for use in case of emergency, and one portable toilet is located near the beach area. Electronic devices are allowed only if a personal headset is used, and radios are banned. Pets are not allowed, but the environment includes plenty of animal life to keep animal lovers happy: garter snakes, frogs, geese, fish, sun turtles, and fox are all at home on the ten acres. Boats are not allowed in the quarry swimming area, but only few feet beyond the grassy parking lot and just past the shaded picnic area is Simpaug Pond, where canoeists and boaters can launch their boats and fish. There are a few nature trails for members to wander along, with more in the making.

Members range from their 20s to their 80s, said Ms Kokoska, with the majority being families with children. “I think that families feel that this is a very safe place to take their kids,” she said. “It is quiet and it is beautiful, and we take safety very, very seriously here. We want all of our swimmers to have fun, but be safe,” said Ms Kokoska.

Newtown resident Bob Eckenrode and his family joined the Limekiln Swimming Association about ten years ago at the behest of a friend. By his second year, he had joined the board. “What the association does is try to recapture the simpler times, and so the board oversees the natural resources,” said Mr Eckenrode. “The key is our water quality. We have a constant flow of fresh water through the quarry and into Simpaug Pond and Brook. It is an honor to work with a place like Limekiln,” he said, and his children have spent many happy summers swimming at the quarry with family and friends.

Marina Arena is a Newtown resident seeking an alternative to the sandless, chlorinated town pools for her three children. She was a guest of Limekiln Swimming Association one sunny day the last week of June. While two of her three children, 3-year-old Rachel and 17-month-old Andrew, paddled in the shallow end of the pond, Ms Arena set down a blanket and toys on the sandy beach and surveyed the setting.

The Arena family, formerly Dickinson Park pool patrons, somewhat put off by the unsettling water quality in the pool’s final years, had investigated other area options. They had not considered the new Eichler’s Cove Beach at the very end of Route 34 and across town from their residence.

 “There is no sand, of course, at Treadwell for the kids to play in. This seems really nice,” she said, “and close for us, living on the Bethel line of Newtown. There is this nice, shallow area for the kids.”

Private Pools

Pat McDougall, owner of Newtown Pools on Route 25, has not seen a huge increase in sales of new pools, but several of his new customers in town have mentioned that the fear of overcrowding at Treadwell, with it being the only town pool, propelled them to seek putting in a private pool. A handful of people that have contacted him in the past year were looking to put in a pool as they had decided to drop a private club membership. “So, despite the economic slump, I have seen a 10 to 20 percent increase in sales,” said Mr McDougall.

The other trends that he has seen with the new pool owners is the desire for bigger pools and the use of saltwater pools in lieu of the traditional, chlorine pools. “Customers are also looking for a bath house by the pool, too,” he said, and they like the privacy offered by having their own pool on their own property. “They are concerned about water quality, and I guess that was a problem at Dickinson,” said Mr McDougall.

Wolfe Park

Only nine miles from the center of Newtown is William E. Wolfe Park in Monroe. “We haven’t been trying to steal any Newtown residents from the Parks and Recreation program there,” stressed Monroe Parks and Recreation director Ron Wallisa, “but we have had a lot of Newtown residents join in the past two summers.”

Wolfe Park, located on Cutlers Farm Road, is a 379-acre park with a 25-meter swimming pool and a 16-acre lake for swimming. The lake has 700 feet of beach and is favored by park members with children, said Mr Wallisa.

“I think that Monroe is convenient for residents in the south end of Newtown,” said Mr Wallisa. Those who join are pleased to have the lake and pool options for swimming, and other activities in the park, as well.

Wolfe Park is open from 7 am to sunset from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and lifeguards are on staff to keep swimmers safe.

The Sound Alternative

Jennings Beach or Penfield Beach in Fairfield are a bit more of a drive, taking more than 40 minutes to reach the locations. But for those swimmers who are seeking a more oceanlike environment for swimming, they are a nearby choice. The sandy beach overlooks Long Island Sound and offers a close-by playground for parents with children, and lots of seagulls for chasing.

“We have seen quite an increase in the number of Newtowners and Sandy Hook residents buying beach passes for the Fairfield beaches,” said a spokesperson for Fairfield Parks and Recreation.

One of the Sandy Hook residents who has been a Fairfield beach fan for several years is Joan Velush. She has always held a pass for the town pools, but especially when her three children were younger, found the Fairfield beaches more appealing. “I wanted the Sound,” she said. “I didn’t like sitting around a pool. Penfield Beach is an attractive, compact beach and what I have always liked is that it has nice tide pools when the tide goes out. It is really clean and we always find things like live crabs and that’s fun for kids,” she said.

Penfield Beach also has attractive conveniences, as well, like What’s Cooking at the Beach, a Soundside restaurant serving wraps, burgers, salads, and breakfast choices. What Ms Velush likes about What’s Cooking is that it is possible to run a tab, paid monthly. “Your kids can run up and get a snack and you don’t have to carry a $20 bill around in your bikini,” she said.

She also found that over the years she and her family got to know other regulars at the beaches in Fairfield. “There is a sense of community there,” she said.

This is the first year she has not yet bought a parking pass for Fairfield beaches. “I think we will be going to Treadwell more often. Noah [her youngest] is 11 now, and has more friends locally that he wants to hang out with,” Ms Velush said. “I could definitely see Craig [her husband] and I getting a pass again in the future, though.”

(For information on Limekiln Swimming Association contact membership chairperson Lee Morgan at 938-3971 or Elaine Kokoska at 938-2233, or visit limekilnsa.org. Information on Wolfe Park can be found at myrecdept.com/ct/monroe. To purchase a pass for Penfield or Jennings Beach in Fairfield, call 203- 256-3010.)