By Jennifer Mann
The Patriot Ledger
Posted Apr 05, 2010 @ 07:59 AM

Town meeting will be asked to use community preservation money to build a harbor walk

SCITUATE — Quaint little bookstore? Check. Shops to roam aimlessly? Check. Restaurants with waterfront seating? Check.

Scituate Harbor has become a summertime delight for visitors who travel by land and by sea. But there is one thing missing: A continuous path along the water’s edge, the type of pedestrian-friendly accent that makes people want to stop and stay awhile.

Town meeting voters in the spring will decide whether to spend $220,000 in community preservation money to build a harbor walk, which would stretch along the southern edge of Cole Parkway, from the boat ramp to Front Street.

The harbor walk would connect to the existing boardwalk that stretches from the boat ramp to the harbormaster’s office. The result would be a U-shaped promenade the length of the harbor parking lot, providing full view of the harbor’s 200 slips and 650 moorings.

The hope is to also add benches and signs along the boardwalk, where visitors can sit and learn about Satuit Brook, where early settlers first arrived, or the Irish Mossing Industry, which for years was run from Lucien Rousseau Landing in Cole Parkway.

“We thought it might be an opportunity for us to create something very nice for the town and make Scituate a boaters’ destination and a visitors’ destination,” said Harbormaster Mark Patterson, who is proposing the project.

Patterson said the project started on a smaller level a couple of years ago with improvements around the harbormaster’s office. Money was raised by allowing people to buy bricks which they could have engraved with their name or the name of their boat. The bricks are being used to form a walkway at the entrance to Cole Parkway, near Cole Parkway Boat Ramp.

Patterson said that around that time he was introduced to Scituate native Dick Ladd.

Ladd, who now lives in Annapolis, Md., was looking for a way to give back to his hometown. While in Scituate for a visit, he stopped by the harbormaster’s office where his father’s name is engraved on the wall. His father, Bob Ladd, was on the town planning board in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and according to Patterson, was instrumental in bringing in the money used to build the harbormaster’s office and town marina.

Patterson and Ladd struck up a conversation over coffee about ways to further improve the harbor. It led to more conversations over the phone. Whenever Ladd could get back to visit, the two spent days pacing out measurements and drawing up conceptual designs. Local landscape architect Sally Coyle also pitched in.

“As we got more and more into this, we realized this was very consistent with plans that my father had talked about, plans for what the harbor should be,” said Ladd, whose family has since donated money for the project.

The harbor walk has been OK’d by all the necessary town boards. Patterson said if town meeting votes to fund the project, the next step would be to put out a request for proposals and hopefully start construction in the fall.