River Bend Landing

It literally takes a village, a very complicated, fine-tuned and well-timed multidisciplinary village to put together even a relatively "small" project like the River Bend Landing.  
It started with the idea 25 plus years ago and the political will to start the process. 
That idea coalesced over the last 10 years thru the work and dedication of Rick Sharr, Lou Pear, Susan Bransfield, Ryan Curley  and many others.
It needs both funding and various state approval via DEEP and other government agencies - herpatologists (thank you Dennis Quinn) endangered species reviews, conservation easements,  right of way easements (thank you Tillcon!) 
Once the funding is secured, someone's got to design it in the budget - thank you Geoff Jacobson and Joe Dillon from Jacobson engineering in Deep River.
Once designed, it then goes out to bid and Portland's very own Butler Construction won the bid - thank you owner Dan Lally and project manager Nick Holt for an amazing job.
As it's being built, our town Public Works team works very closely to help, compliment and assist in the project in a variety of ways.  Special thanks to Ryan O'halprin our previous Public Works Director, Jason Morracco our current PWD, Mike Lastrina who seems to do everything all the time and the entire PW crews that assisted.  Huge team effort to clear and build the road, parking area and path to the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A shout out to Dave Thompson, Karen Renner, Michael Hennessy, Tom Bransfield and all the volunteers that literally put in hundreds of hours of work clearing and cleaning up that riverfront area!
Dave and Glen from Total Fence did a great job merging the old fencing with the new - and they did it quickly, on-time and within budget.
Don Gouin and his CERT team provide security and safety throughout the event - something most people don't think twice about means he's doing his job perfectly! 
Our Senior Center Director Sarah provided the senior center bus and driver (thank you Joe!) to help transport folks to and from the river front - And with over 120 people attending today, that was incredibly helpful! 
Darin Senna from Hartford Sign and Design came thru  and created and installed our new signs literally within hours of getting the final proof - thank you to you and your team!!
It all worked well and came together perfectly today and I'm looking forward to seeing how this evolves in the months ahead!!
I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of people that helped with the project in ways big and small and please add anyone I missed in the comments!

- First Selectman, Michael Pelton, June 7, 2026