West Hartford’s Department of Leisure Services has provided updates on capital projects as well as operations.

By Ronni Newton

The Town of West Hartford’s investment in infrastructure is not just impacting roadways and sidewalks, with this year many other projects to benefit the community underway or preparing to commence.

Helen Rubino-Turco, the town’s director of Leisure Services and Social Services, provided an update on some of those projects, responding to some of the most-asked questions including the status of the driving range at Rockledge Golf Club.

“Construction is continuing. We do expect that it is going to be completed in the fall,” Rubino-Turco said Tuesday night at a meeting of the Town Council’s Human & Community Services Committee.

“Ground improvement has been completed and the building’s piers and perimeter frost walls for the foundation have been poured,” Rubino-Turco told We-Ha.com as she shared additional information. “The building’s slab will come next, followed by the pre-fabricated building structure. New net poles are being installed, and nets will be in place by the end of August.”

According to Rubino-Turco, the range is expected to be completed and ready for use by late September. Signs indicating “New Driving Range Under Construction” will soon be in place, and she said the project is in good shape now.

The project has taken much longer than initially expected, and the driving range has now been closed for more than a year. Construction of a new, covered, 17-bay driving range building as well as two teaching bays was scheduled to have been completed by the fall of 2024. However, as preliminary work on the project began last summer it was discovered that the soil underneath the intended structure was not suitable for construction. The town hired a contractor for excavation and installation of 12 rammed aggregate piers and the foundation for the driving range structure, and needed to complete that part of the project before the other construction could take place.

Eisenhower Park pool

Rubino-Turco also provided an update on the long-planned replacement of the Eisenhower Park pool, which will be getting underway as soon as possible after the pool closes for the 2025 season on Aug. 17.

“The project was bid last year and awarded to Redwood Construction. The project includes the renovation of the pool house building and removal of the existing pool and the installation of the new pool,” Rubino-Turco said this week.

The pool at Eisenhower Park had been closed for two years (2021 and 2022) following the discovery of a significant leak and other structural issues but after temporary repairs – including caulking and masonry work – were made prior to the summer of 2023, several swimming seasons were added to the pool’s useful life.

The town had initially planned to replace the pool at Eisenhower Park, which was built in 1964, prior to the 2023 season, but an initial response to an RFP issued in 2022 resulted in bids that were $2 million more – nearly double – what had been projected and budgeted. Town Manager Rick Ledwith and Director of Leisure and Social Services Helen Rubino-Turco and others from the town were able to work with contractors to come up with a plan for the temporary repairs that involved removing a part of the bottom of the pool and re-sealing it while new bids were obtained.

Replacement of the pool and the pool house was split into a two-phase project, and the first phase, renovation of the building, started last fall and was completed in the spring, Rubino-Turco said.

“Phase II involves the removal of the pool. This requires extensive environmental abatement, which was more complex than originally anticipated. Therefore, we decided to remove the abatement and demolition of the pool from Redwood’s scope of work,” Rubino-Turco said.

The abatement work is currently out to bid, and responses are due by Aug. 14, according to the town’s website. As soon as the project is awarded and the pool is closed, it’s anticipated that the abatement and demolition will begin.

“After that work is completed in early October, the construction of the new pool will begin and will be completed by next spring in time for use next summer,” Rubino-Turco said.

The new pool will include a zero depth entry area and some spray features, but will also have a deep end. “That is something different from our other pools,” she said.

Three of West Hartford’s outdoor pools – including Eisenhower – are scheduled to close for the season on Aug. 17, 2025.

The Fernridge Park pool will remain open until Aug. 29, providing an option for swimming during the time that the indoor facility at Cornerstone Aquatics Center is closed for annual maintenance.

The pool at Beachland Park will actually stay open for one extra day – but not for humans to swim. The water level will be somewhat reduced and the pool will be the site of the annual West Hartford Dog Park Coalition “Pooch Plunge,” on Monday, Aug. 18, from 4-6:45 p.m.

Splash pads will be open through early September, at least through Labor Day but possibly another week or two past that, Rubino-Turco said.

Tennis courts, footbridges, and other capital projects

The six tennis courts at Fernridge Park are currently closed, the fences and nets are down, and the existing surfaces are being replaced by post tensioned concrete courts.

“We do expect that this will be completed by late September or early October,” Rubino-Turco advised Human & Community Services Committee members on Tuesday.

She said the resurfacing of the tennis courts is being during this timeframe because the high school courts are all available during the summer. A tennis program scheduled to be held in the fall will be able to use courts at Wolcott Park and at the high schools until the Fernridge courts are ready.

All courts at Fernridge will remain tennis courts; none will be turned into pickleball courts, Rubino-Turco said, because of the proximity to homes. The town already has 12 outdoor pickleball courts – at Buena Vista and Wolcott Park.

Rubino-Turco said that two beautiful new cedar plank footbridges have now been installed – one at Westmoor Park and the other at Spicebush Swamp Park.

A third footbridge has also been designed and is awaiting zoning approval, with the project will be going out to bid this fall. That bridge will be installed on the east side of Trout Brook Drive at the former UConn campus property, leading to the Miracle League field.

The multi-year renovations at Wolcott Park are continuing, Rubino-Turco said. The new restroom building opened this summer, and the eastern parking lot has been designed and will go out to bid soon, with construction taking place either this fall or in the spring.

Also at Wolcott, a wildflower meadow is being created on the hillside of Wolcott Road, Rubino-Turco told the Council. Last fall the area was blanketed with 6-8 inches of mulch to suppress weeds. The mulch has been scraped off and some planting will be done this fall, followed by more in the spring. “It’s designed to be implemented so that it can be self-sufficienct and will not require a lot of work,” she said.

In an operations update, Rubino-Turco said Leisure Service has had “a banner season for registrations, with over 17,600 registrations received for Spring/Summer programs, and over 42,600 registrations processed for the last fiscal year – the most ever. Registrations for most full day camps [were] at over 95% capacity this summer. Of the 17,600 registrations, more than 13,000 were for children and approximately 4,500 for adults and seniors,” she said.

Events coming up soon include a Friends of West Hartford Parks movie night, on Friday, Sept. 5 at Kennedy Park. The free, family-friendly event will feature a showing of “Madagascar.”

Westmoor Park’s Feast on the Farm will be held on Friday, Sept. 26. “This will be the 12th one,” Rubino-Turco said. The event has been going on for 13 years but was held as a picnic during 2020 due to the pandemic.

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