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Arts & Entertainment

New Walking Path for Recreation Comes to Westwood

The new path will provide Westwood residents with a recreational alternative for getting around town.

Westwood residents this weekend will have the chance to check out a newly-constructed walking trail connecting various landmarks in town.

"This is the first time we've done something like this," said Steven Olanoff, vice chairman of the Westwood Planning Board.

Fox Meadow Estates began the plans to create the long-awaited, first-of-its-kind pathway after an agreement with the Planning Board.

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Construction of the new path was completed Thursday, and is expected to provide the Westwood residents with a soothing alternative way to get around town.

"I'm really excited because it's the first trail [that Westwood] has had in a long time, and it's the first trail to be placed behind any of the stone walls around Westwood," Olanoff said, adding that paths such as this one have been sprouting up in other towns like Wellesley, Weston and Wayland.

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"[It's] something we would like to see more of," he said.

The new path will start at the Fox Meadows entryway and stretch towards Fox Field, then connecting from Gay Street to Thatcher Street. The path poses as a scenic and safe travel route for children walking to and from school.

Westwood Town Planner Nora Loughnane said the path "brings you from High Street to Thatcher, then to the YMCA path, up behind the (Thurston) Middle School and (Westwood) High School and to Gay Street. Then it lets you cross Gay Street, walk down a stone dust path to Fox Hill, up Fox Hill Street to Fox Meadow, then there's a sidewalk to an old carriage path in Lowell Woods all the way to the Hanlon School."

William Duffey, the previous owner of the land, sold the property in 2008 to the Gilbane Building Company of Providence, RI.  Beforehand, Duffey made an agreement with the town of Westwood, which stated that "the Applicant shall contribute a maximum of $20,000 to help defray the cost to the Town of constructing the pathway . . . This contribution was voluntarily offered by the Applicant.  The Applicant shall not have any obligation to construct the pathway or obtain any permits or approvals with respect thereto." For the full document, click here.

Loughnane explained that "when the Gilbane Building Company bought the land, the deal was no longer valid."

Instead, the Gilbane Building Company came to an agreement to only put one sidewalk on Gay Street, and to also build a path behind the stone wall.

"The boundary of the road is at the stone wall," Olanoff said, "so [the path] is going behind the stone wall."

But the pathway, he added, is a cheaper, better alternative to a sidewalk.

While the path may not be the quickest travel route to get from one side of town to the other, it will provide walkers, joggers and bicyclists a scenic, natural route to enjoy.

"The path is going to be good for recreational purposes like dog walking, bike riding, and jogging," Loughnane said.

"It's nicer," Olanoff said, "because it's away from traffic."

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