WILTON – Town officials expressed surprise and excitement at Tuesday’s board meeting, after the town manager read a letter indicating that $360,000 had been donated to benefit the Recreation Department.
The donation was made by a former Wilton resident who passed away, with the only stipulation being that the funds benefit the programs and facilities of the Wilton Recreation Department. The donor’s family has asked that the donation remain anonymous. The town’s recreation committee will be meeting next month to determine how the funds should be used. Those suggestions would then be presented to the Selectboard.
“It’s a wonderful gift to the children and the town of Wilton,” Town Manager Rhonda Irish said.
Both the Selectboard and Recreation Director Frank Donald suggested that some of the $360,000 could be set aside to create a trust for the department, allowing it to benefit from the interest going into the future. There are also projects that Donald and the recreation committee have been looking ahead to, such as possibly installing playground equipment at Bishop Park in East Wilton.
The Selectboard also accepted some donated boxes for the department’s new disc golf course, to hold donations from participants. Jeff Chaisson had worked with the Wilton Hardware Store to make the boxes and donate them to the town. The board also accepted the donation of a sign from Shannon Smith and the Wilton Blueberry Festival at Kineowatha Park. That sign replaces an older version that was also donated by the Blueberry Festival; Irish noted that it matched the other signs the town had to mark recreation opportunities.
Donald noted that the new disc golf course, divided into beginner and intermediate sections, had seen brisk traffic since it opened this summer. The department had also seen use of its kayaks and paddleboards increase, as that program went through its second summer.
In other business, the town will hold a special town meeting on Sept. 19 at 6:30 p.m. to accept two Community Development Block Grants, one for facade improvements in the downtown and one to assist Carrier Welding and Fabrication by purchasing new equipment and infrastructure. Both CDBG grants were already the subject of one special town meeting to approve submitting the applications; they now go before the voters again to accept the funds. The facade grant is for $150,000 while the economic development grant is $240,000.
Amazing!! So thrilled for Wilton Rec!
That is an amazing gift! As being a past member of the Recreation Dept. there is so many good uses that we dreamed about that this money will make the committees discussions come true!
Thank you whomever you are!
This is such a generous donation. Thank you to the family of the donor.
Should be used only for the parks up keep and pleasure and NOT salaries.
Very Nice! Thank you to the anonymous donor!
Larry Donald and the Town of Wilton have quite a gem in Kineowatha Park. I am proud and thankful to have grown up and benefitted from the many programs the Wilton Rec Dept offered back in the 80’s!
Keep up the good work.
As a member of the Rec Department Committee, a past participant of the rec department program and now being a parent of children in the program this is wonderful news! The generosity is overwhelming! This will be helpful in completing projects that we as a committee thought were years away! Thank you to the donor’s family for this generous donation!
What a wonderful gift!
Hopefully the wall and beach area will be fixed and upgraded with this wonderful gift. So thankful to the donor.
Ditto to Mia…..Wall and Beach Area improvement.
@James…I hope they double Frank’s salary with it, he’s the reason Wiltons park and rec department outshines towns with many more resources…
This is a wonderful gift! I would love to see some improvements at the village view park. There are so many children in this area now that could benefit from some new play equipment. This park seems to bet left behind all the time when it comes to any discussions about wilton rec programs and locations.
Thank you to the donor and their family for this extravagant gift!!
Wonderful news! Thank you to the family. Hopefully a large portion can be set a side for the future care of the park.
Money well spent.
This is fantastic! And I agree with MIke Danforth — Frank Donald is the reason The Wilton Parks & Rec Dept is as good as it is and possibly a contributing factor in the decision behind the donation. This is great news for Wilton!
Wonderful! Wilton and its residents are very fortunate to have beautiful Kineowatha. My grandparents played there, and now my son enjoys it. Thank you so much for the thoughtful donation.
The Recreation committiee will be discussing what to do with the money from this generous donation at it’s next meeting which is September 10 at 7 pm in the Main Lodge at Kineowatha Park. We would love to have people send in ideas or even better bring them to the meeting for us to discuss. We will then take some of these ideas to the select board to go over. Rest assured we will do our best to make sure this money is well used. Some of it will likely go into a trust fund of some sort to generate money for future projects and some for more imediate needs and projects.The many kind comments are much appreciated.