If Boats Could Vote

I've heard it said that to a man with a hammer the whole world is a nail. I suspect some of the darker meaning behind that turn of phrase has to do with the all-too-human propensity to impose the same solution on a variety of problems because we believe the past can determine the future, no matter how dissimilar the paths are that brought us there.

This past week, we've taken what many  regard as our gem, the Norwich Harbor, and used it to stage and showcase a number of events and activities-with more to come as the summer days, and especially summer nights, heat up.

We look at the Harbor's influence in stimulating economic growth in Norwich in much the same the way as the fingers on the hand look to the thumb. At the risk of being perceived as a middle digit let me share a concern involving all of us that requires all of our energies to solve.

The annual Rotary carnival at Howard T. Brown Park is a happy and recent memory as crowds from around the region turned out every evening (even on the somewhat moist ones) for thrills and spills, ring-toss and all the traditional carny games together with fabulous eats of the Midway.

Replicas of  Columbus' ships, the Nina and Pinta, will make a return visit to the Harbor mooring at the Marina with opportunities for self-guided tours beginning tomorrow and lasting through next Wednesday. Their port call to The Rose of New England sandwiches the 2014 edition of the Norwich Riverfest (and Dragon Boat Races) which is this Saturday morning starting at nine.

Having special events centered on the Harbor and Howard T. Brown Park is a terrific way to build visitor traffic for the Chelsea district, and is good news unless you're someone who spends time there involved in events that are rarely thought of as special. You may be wondering whom I mean.

Have you ever visited the Harbor, no matter the season or the weather, and not encountered fishermen (and women)? From practically underneath the Laurel Hill Bridge to the Heritage Walkway after it clears the Sweeney Bridge over the Yantic before Ericson's Ice Cream Shop, there are anglers everywhere.

We've talked a lot, possibly (I fear) at the expense of actually doing something, about leveraging opportunities in/near the Norwich Harbor to capitalize on fishing, boating and outdoor recreation as a boost for tourism and in turn another tool for economic development.

As we all know, talk is cheap-action costs money. But in light of the detritus and debris from early industrialization as Norwich was settled along the Harbor and the legacy of  possible pollution and remediation costs for whatever may be buried in properties at the rivers' confluence, the dollars to invest in clean-up costs are often absent though the desire is there.

I'd hope there are efforts underway, but hope is not a plan and any plan needs include communication with residents on what is happening and progress achieved and challenges yet ahead. Silence is not helpful, unless you're actually fishing.

I imagine the impetus to create and execute a plan of economic development to better reflect riverine recreational tourism opportunities grows every time we close the boat launch at Howard T. Brown Park for the many (other) activities we stage there.

I'm not sure where else in Norwich a fisherman can launch a boat but I know a body in motion tends to remain in motion, and once we start encouraging fisherman to take their boats and go elsewhere, that new location will be where they purchase all the goods and services they require for a hobby some 40 million people enjoy.  

And what of us here in Norwich? We'll always have all those discussions about someday expanding activities at the Harbor but somehow that seems to be empty solace.
-bill kenny