Efforts to supplement public benches along popular walking paths in Manchester have received a big boost —the Longevity Bench Project announced that it will be installing three new benches this fall and moving forward with another four sites approved to be sited on town lands. This will triple the number of Longevity benches from its initial launch in May 2018.
Set for installation in September are three benches: one at Black Beach on Ocean Street, another on Woodholm Street and the third on Bridge Street. All benches are of the same style and finish, will not rust, and are specifically designed to meet the federal guidelines of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), making them usable by most people. On the center back rail is a plaque to honor the donors and property owners where each bench is installed.
The project is the brainchild of resident Lisa Bonneville, and its mission is to provide benches in town so that people of all ages and abilities can easily take a walk by providing a place to rest at regular intervals. Bonneville mapped out popular walking loops (including the School-Pleasant-Pine-Central Street “Heater Loop”) and then charted existing town benches. She then proposed to supplement existing benches with Longevity benches that, together with the town’s benches. The idea is to build a network of benches that would make Manchester a “walk friendly” community for all.
Thus far in 2019, $20,710 has been donated to the project. General project include the M-E Rotary Club, Crosby’s Market, Charles and Stella Nahatis, Christine Kinney and Louisa Macintosh. And then all bench projects enjoy sponsorship for materials, including Keystone Ridge Design, which supplies the benches, and Jeffreys Creek Land Contractors, which installs the 11 ft. by 6 ft. concrete pads that support them.
(Click on photo gallery) Adele Ervin Longevity Bench (Ocean Street/Black Beach). Located on a tiny spit of land straddling a beautiful marsh and Black Beach, the bench will be sited on land owned by the M-E Conservation Trust. The project’s funding was led by Doug Hotchkiss and has a total of 40 donors, including Hotchkiss.
(Click on photo gallery) Lisa Bonneville Longevity Bench (Woodholm Street). Located in front of Lisa and George Bonneville’s home, the bench donation was a 70th birthday gift to Bonneville from her extended family and friends. The idea was organized by her niece Amy Wilson of Chicago and has 42 donors in all for this bench.
(Click on photo gallery) Langille Longevity Bench (Bridge Street). Located on the north side of Rte. 127 (Bridge Street) between Jersey Lane and Highland Avenue, construction and the site of this bench have been donated by the Langille family and will be located along the sidewalk of their property.
There are five town-owned property sites that were approved last month by the Board of Selectmen for Longevity Benches, and four of them are ready for Bonneville to begin fundraising for the actual hardware. The first is at the corner of Pleasant and Pine Streets, off the cemetery. This bench would face Pleasant Street. The second is on Pine Street at the Powder House Hill trailhead that is located just after Newport Park. The third is at another Powder House Hill trailhead, this one on Pleasant Street. The fourth bench would replace an existing (dilapidated) town bench on the corner of School Street and Pleasant Street.
The fifth bench site on town property had been theoretically approved but may have fundamental deed-restriction challenges that may prove insurmountable. This location is at Winthrop Field, the beautiful open space along Bridge Street (Rte. 127) across from the Old Corner Inn donated in the 1960s to the town by a resident in her will. Town Administrator Greg Federspiel said this location is being currently studied by the town (Mike Chapman and the Winthrop Field Committee, specifically) because when the parcel of land had deed restrictions placed on it as part of the donation and these restrictions may not allow the installation.
Bonneville said materials have been ordered and materials are set to arrive in late August, with construction will happen immediately after.
