Nestled in the far south-west corner of West Sussex lies a quintessential English garden which opens once a year in aid of St Wilfrid’s Hospice.

Owners Paul and Hilary Gilson open their garden annually, at The Old House in Prinsted.

“I opened my garden for the first time in 2005, in my role of chairman of Southbourne Support Group for St Wilfrid’s Hospice,” said Mrs Gilson.

“We have opened it every year since then, always in May, from 2pm-5pm.

“Last year, we had 350 visitors and raised £3,800 for the hospice.

“This year, our tenth opening on May 18, I very much hope to go over £4,000.

“The nine previous openings have generated an income of £22,500 for St Wilfrid’s Hospice.

“I should stress that I could not have such results without the help of members of the support group on the day, together with the tolerance of Prinsted residents.”

The home dates back to the late 14th century, and harbours a green oasis of rustic charm and clever planting.

The couple moved to the house from an almost identical cottage in the Chilterns in 1994, and wanting to make it her own, Hilary consulted a local garden designer for help.

The main priority, other than keeping the garden sympathetic to the cottage’s age, was a hidden work area for Hilary who loves to propagate but, by her own admission, is not the tidiest gardener in the world.

This was achieved with ‘walls’ of trellis, covered in climbers during the summer months, ‘hiding the chaos’.

Although a planting plan was provided, Hilary decided to stamp her own identity on the place and has filled it with cottage garden plants interspersed with a collection of plants and shrubs from around the world.

The beauty of this variety is the cohesion it forms as it nestles the house – salvias and hollyhocks, foxgloves and ornamental grasses, agapanthus and box.

With the thatched well as a centrepiece, it has been cleverly laid out with paths and terraces to entice the visitor, with hidden gems in all corners of the garden.

Colour co-ordination is important to Mrs Gilson and she tries each year to create a flow of colour around the garden, although even she admits she is sometimes pleasantly surprised by the arrival of an unexpected self-planted visitor which can transform a planting plan beyond beauty to a stunning feature.

With an array of plants in the gardens, each has its own story to tell.

A plant brought with them from the Chilterns in memory of Hilary’s mother is osmanthus delavayi with its Award of Garden Merit.

Now drooping its branches towards the path, its highly-scented tiny white flowers compete with a sarcococca humilis tucked in a flowerbed to the left of the entrance way, where visitors are instantly welcomed in winter with its overwhelming scent.

Aptly enough for such an old cottage, there was an ancient Paul’s scarlet crataegus growing over the front wall.

Badly damaged in the 1987 storms, it was subsequently propped up until 2003 when the big decision was made to remove it for safety reasons.

Such an eminent tree in the village required consultation even though it was growing in the Gilsons’ garden, and they made the decision to cull the original but replant a new Paul’s scarlet in order to carry on the tradition.

Another elderly resident grows in the driveway which runs up the side of the house – a very rare, if rather ungainly, Wisley crab apple.

Following its unusual dark purple flowers, it produces ‘the most enormous, red glistening fruit’ – so akin to an apple that many people are fooled into thinking it really is an apple tree, only to get a bitter taste when they bite into one.

Despite the comparatively small size of the garden, there is a lawn, carefully maintained by a local company, which provides the perfect neutral backdrop to the cornucopia of colour in the borders.

Scarified and aerated on a yearly basis, even with two female dogs, the lawn is enviably immaculate.

Hard landscaping consists of a pebbled area around the well, gravel courtyards and a lovely old brick courtyard complete with rolling drain to catch the unaware at the back of the house.

Flint walls form the boundary and an old hovel, again built of flint, is to the rear.

This building, along with the cottage itself, has appeared on old maps for many centuries.

Wildlife plays a prominent role and there are two ponds – one a natural wildlife pond tucked away in a quiet corner, the other a more formal raised pond on the rear 
brick patio.

Birds and bees enjoy self-seeded annuals such as verbena bonariensis, eryngium alpinum and sunflowers.

Mrs Gilson weeds out any objectionably-placed seedlings, but happily endures the others which bring with them a gentle chaos to what could be an over-orderly garden. Pieces of the cut-up trunk of an old prunus sargentii have been carefully placed in secluded corners as insect hotels while two bird feeders are filled every day, ten months of the year – August and September being diet-time due to the season of plenty.

With only the help of her gardener Kate on a fortnightly basis, Mrs Gilson has shaped a delightful, relaxing oasis of charm around her chocolate-box home. Utilising the fertile soil created by the old owners’ kitchen garden, the plants thrive and pests and diseases are rare.

Winner of several local gardening competitions including the Chichester District Council Front Garden of the Year four years on the trot and the Hampshire Federation Garden of 2010, Hilary has now ‘retired’ from entering and transcended to judge for local societies.

A keen plantswoman with an eagle eye for detail and design, she is a formidable force when it comes to judging, but nevertheless has an open enough mind to see merit in some aspects of design and planting she herself would never use. And, of course, judging other gardens gives her the opportunity of collecting ideas to transpose to her own garden.

“I was invited to become a judge of garden competitions in 2011 so I was able to look at gardens from the other side of the fence, so to speak, something I have very much enjoyed,” said Mrs Gilson.

“As a result of all this, I now give talks on the garden and other subjects.”

But most important of all, Hilary opens their garden for charity, giving other gardeners the chance to come to admire its beauty.

Sitting at a shaded table with a cup of tea and a luscious scone – homemade by Paul – it is the ideal way to spend a leisurely afternoon.

n Visit The Old House gardens in Prinsted on Sunday, 
May 18, from 2pm-5pm.

Admission is £3 in aid of St Wilfrid’s Hospice. There will be a large plant sale and cream teas on offer.

Grindstone Elementary School teacher John Kruggel.Courtesy of John Kruggel

Name: John Kruggel

School where you
teach: Grindstone Elementary School, Berea

Grade/subject you
teach: First Grade

What made you want to
be a teacher? What’s your favorite part of the job?

Both my parents are retired teachers, and one of my three
sisters is also a teacher. So I guess you could say teaching is in my blood! As
a teenager, I worked at day camps as a counselor, and I’ve coached kids in
various sports across various age levels. I always enjoyed being around my
nieces and nephews and seeing how they learned to do things and what their
reactions were to new and different experiences. The combination of all these
things put me on the path to being a teacher, and I love what I do. I feel very
lucky to have worked since 1998 in a district like the Berea City School
District, where there is so much mutual respect among teachers, staff,
administrators and Board members.

I think my favorite part of my job is the very beginning of
the day, seeing the kids come in to class in the morning. It doesn’t matter
what the weather is, what kind of mood I’m in, or how much we have to do that
day. First-graders come in so excited and full of energy and things to share.
You just can’t ask for a better start to your day!

How many former
students do you keep in touch with? Do they come back to visit?

I get to see a lot of my former students from time to time,
especially because I also live in the school district. I see the students up to
the fourth grade in our building, and often I get to see the older students at football
games and other sporting events, or perhaps when they come to our school for a
performance. This year I had a former student, who is now at the high school,
come back and teach Junior Achievement in my class. It is so neat to see them
all grown up!

Teachers often get a
bad rap, for getting summers “off.” How do you generally spend your summers?

While I do enjoy having a little more time to spend with my
family in the summer, I, like other teachers, also spend time taking classes,
looking for additional online resources for my students, networking with other
teachers to get suggestions and ideas I can use with my students, finding
special craft materials or other supplies I can use for the next year’s
lessons, etc. I am often in the building
preparing my classroom or future lessons — most teachers spend time in their
schools over the summer. Just like the school day is not over when I leave my
building, the school year is not over when there are no students. This year,
especially, with the Common Core coming in, teachers have been meeting
regularly, taking classes and workshops as part of professional growth, and
always, always learning.

I also work a second
job, since I am lucky enough to have a brother-in-law who owns his own
landscaping business. I work with him most of the summers, which is a great
change from the classroom. He does all the thinking, and I do what he tells me!

How have your lesson
plans and teaching techniques changed to keep up with technology? The Common
Core? Standardized tests?

Technology has totally reinvented teaching for me. The use of smart boards, ELMOs, and the
availability of a wide variety of online resources have made it possible for me
to get my students involved as active participants in their learning. We use technology to give immediate feedback
on diagnostic testing on computers, to check the weather and calendar items
each day, and access a variety of creative videos that present the key elements
and skills in a unique and enjoyable way — reinforcing skills in reading,
math, and writing and also make those available to students at home. Most of
today’s students have access to these technologies in their home life (iPods,
smart phones, tablets, Kindle, computers), and they enjoy that interactive way
of learning and understanding. Fortunately, students in first grade don’t have
as many of the standardized tests to deal with yet, but it’s important to
remember that any type of testing provides just one piece of information in
understanding and evaluating the ability of each child. I try to use as many
avenues as possible to help my students learn the skills and knowledge they
need.

The Common Core requires students to use higher-level
thinking, with more detail and understanding of the process of formulating answers.
Rather than memorizing outcomes, students must explain how they arrived at a
particular answer, which increases the learning. I want to use every strategy I
can to help my students be successful, lifelong learners.

What is the best
teacher thank you gift you’ve ever received?

I’ve had all kinds of great gifts from students and their
parents over the years and I’ve enjoyed every one of them. The ones that always
mean the most to me are the ones that are made by the students themselves and
come from their hearts. I keep many of those gifts in my classroom, and
whenever I look at them, I remember that student and the things that made him
or her special. Every child is special in a unique way and I am lucky to have
the opportunity to work with them as a teacher.

Volney, N.Y. — Dan Fey has built his share of homes.

He founded Spectrum Contracting more than 25 years ago and has worked on everything from high-end custom projects to ordinary remodeling gigs. For the dream home he built for himself and his wife, he took inspiration from many projects.

He also wanted to give himself a challenge.

“I took a lot of things I liked,” he said. “I wanted to do something unusual and difficult.”

The house has nearly 40 corners, unique angles and fixtures and plenty of custom, hand-made touches, including marble inlay on the floor by the front door, Fey said. The floor plan is wide open.

Nearly every place visitors sit in the home, they’ll see something different, Fey said.

“If you move 10 feet, you’ll get a whole different feeling,” he said. “As long as I’ve lived there, there are still places I can sit and see different things. I guess that’s my definition of architectural perfection.”

Fey worked with an architect on the design, but it was based on his ideas.

“It’s kind of a sneaky thing,” Fey said. “You’re not really sure what you like so much about it at first.”

With such a personal connection to the home, Fey said he has mixed feelings about selling.

Fey and his wife, Robin, are selling now to downsize. She is retired from her job as a nurse and their children are grown.

The house sits on 2.7 acres. Toward the back of the property is a wooded area with a creek running through it.

The home is on a private, paved drive.

It has real stone light posts along a circular driveway and multiple areas of gardens and landscaping. The house itself also has real stonework on the outside in some spots and vertical siding in other areas.

Elsewhere outside, the home has a 2,000-square-foot cedar deck along its back and an 18-by-38 in-ground pool.

THE DETAILS:

Address: 18 Creekside Drive, Volney, N.Y. 13069
Price: $374,900
Size: 3,167 square feet
Lot size: 2.68 acres
Monthly Mortgage: $1,482.46 (based on this week’s national average rate of 4.29 percent by Freddie Mac for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a 20 percent down payment. Fees and points are not included.)
Taxes: $11,832
Built: 1993
School District: Fulton

Great room: The great room, with 24-foot ceilings, large windows and a wood-burning fireplace, is visible from the home’s front entrance. It has custom built-in shelving and a built-in entertainment center. Its windows look toward a wooded area and a stream that runs by the house.

Office/dining room: The home’s office, with 10-foot ceilings, is to the left of the front entrance. To the right is the formal dining room. Above the doors to each room are open transoms surrounded by oak casings.

Sunroom: The sunroom is off the great room. It has vaulted ceilings, French doors and skylights. The sunroom leads to a screened porch, which allows access to the deck along the home’s back.

Kitchen: The kitchen is off the sunroom. It has a ceramic tile floor, Wood-Mode cabinetry, 14-foot ceilings, multiple pantries and inlaid designs in the counters. It also has a work desk located by a window with a view of the front yard.

Master suite: The bedroom has a walk-in closet and hardwood trim. The bathroom has a whirlpool tub, double vanity and a combination of marble and ceramic tile. The floor is granite. The bathroom also has a glass shower.

Bedrooms/bathrooms: The home has a total of four bedrooms, three full bathrooms and one half bathroom. A balcony on the second floor looks down onto the great room from above. The upstairs also features a guest suite with its own bathroom. Another full bathroom is located in between the other two bedrooms on the second floor.

Basement: The basement is partially finished and includes a sunken game room, bar area and exercise room. The house also has an attached, three-car garage.

Agent: Sandra Farrands
RealtyUSA
18 Canalview Mall, Fulton, N.Y. 13069
Phone: (315) 952-8216
Email: sfarrands@realtyusa.com
Website: www.realtyusa.com

To nominate a listing for House of the Week send an email to home@syracuse.com. Contact Kevin Tampone at ktampone@syracuse.com or (315) 454-2112 and follow him on Twitter @ktampone.

Apart from modern technologies that promise to keep your home safe, there are also some easy landscaping ideas that can make your home more secure, writes Simran Chhibber.

Having come across umpteen signs displaying alerts like ‘Beware of Dogs’, ‘Trespassers will be prosecuted’ etc., I had often wondered if these ways to deter unwanted company onto a property were as effective as thought to be?

Or whether there were subtler, friendlier or rather better looking means than ugly chain link fences to prevent intruders of the likes of burglars and robbers?

Observing a few facts about recent burglaries helped me understand the psyche of housebreakers better.

Recent studies have indicated that most robbers take only about a minute to break into a property and less than 10 minutes to polish off a house.

The aim being, to vanish before getting noticed.

Another interesting fact that came up was that robbers usually strike at night somewhere around midnight till early dawn hours.

Robbers usually are no strangers, rather they are young amateurs living in nearby areas.

Whilst establishing privacy, homeowners too, sometimes settle for towering hedges and profusely thick shrubbery and mostly these attributes that provide privacy on one hand, also make the perfect screen to shield a burglar on the other.

Scrutinising these facts led to a little research on my part and I got more answers than I thought I would.

Here are a few landscaping tips that could aid in keeping housebreakers away.

Keep the hedges short

Tall hedges, bushes and shrubs provide the requisite hiding garb that robbers look for.

Keeping the hedges trimmed to about three feet and clipping tree branches so the canopy starts at least eight feet from the ground, shall ensure that your garden isn’t providing a hideout for the robbers and that your house is visible to the neighbours and passers-by, eliminating hiding places for intruders.

Gravel wonders

Laying a path of gravel or stone up to your door and below your external windows ensures that even subtle footsteps can be heard loudly.

Hence, a robber walking on it cannot go unnoticed or unheard.

Pea gravel, for example, available in a light stone colour can mingle flawlessly with the existing landscaping and makes a loud crunching noise to inform the homeowners of an intruder’s presence.

As an added bonus, gravel or stones are a water-saving substitute to grass in dry conditions.

Thorny bushes can help too

Bedecking the space below the windows with a thorny plant like a bougainvillea bush, rose, cactus or any other barbed vegetation is sure to deter the entry of an intruder.

Installing a good security system

Recent crime studies reveal that homes with security systems are three times less likely to be burgled than homes without them.

A display board about the home security system on your front kerb might dissuade some criminals, even if it is a sham.

Motion-activated lights

Motion-activated lights can actually make the robbers feel that the light has been switched on because of them. This new gizmo can actually scare off housebreakers, catching them unaware.

And because the lights are only triggered off when required, they can be a cost-effective and an environmentally-friendly choice.

A busy looking house

When away from your house, ensure that your house doesn’t look empty.

Simple things like keeping your car in the driveway or a friendly request to the neighbours asking them to pick up dropped newspapers etc can aid to the cause.

Leaving your TV or music system set up to an alarm can lead to the house looking abuzz with activity.

Landscaping is often ignored and missed as an element of home safety.

However, keeping these suggestions in mind can help ascertain that your home is safe and secure.

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The Levee Park Committee in charge of revitalizing Winona’s underutilized river park wants to make sure the park’s plan doesn’t end up forgotten on a shelf.

Members worry that if the Winona City Council, which will make the final decision on any plans, gets one large recommendation it might be too grand of a concept – and potential price – for the council to jump on board.

The group decided it would break down each section of the plan — which was submitted by consultants —  to make proposals more manageable and easier to prioritize.

“If we send just one item and say it’s what we want, there’s a real chance that we end up on the back shelf like many plans have,” Committee Chairman Frank Pomeroy said.

That’s why the committee spent Tuesday’s meeting hashing out how to strategically move the plan forward and present it to the council – which they plan to do in June.

The committee was also a bit worried that if the plans weren’t moving forward fast enough the public would lose interest.

“There’s a fear of getting bogged down and having nothing happening,” said committee member Owen Warneke.

To ensure the momentum continues, some members wanted to concentrate first on short term goals that could be easily accomplished. It would let the public know work is in process and would give the council small bites of the project that could be easily chewed and financially managed.

Others cautioned that concentrating on small goals could leave out the big picture and instead delay the grand plan.

“I would just caution that we don’t recommend a bunch of temporary fixes,” committee member Tina Anderson said.

Some wanted to break down the entire plan into sections and give the committee’s recommendations on the feasibility and value of each piece and let the council give direction on what to pursue.

And at least one member wanted to hire someone with the expertise to sort through the pieces of the plan and put a price tag on them before going to the city council.

In his State of the Town speech, Marana Mayor Ed Honea lauded the town’s progress and spoke highly of its future.

Honea spoke April 18 at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.

“The state of our town is excellent. Our finances are in order,” Honea said, according to a speech transcript provided by the town.

“We have a very healthy reserve account in place. Our roads and infrastructure are in excellent condition. We have great parks and trails. Our police are some of the best in the state. The town of Marana, our town, is going in the right direction.”

Honea said Duralar Technologies has selected Marana as its North American headquarters, and said the plant will be located in the business park near Arizona Pavilions. According to town spokesman Rodney Campbell, the company could hire 35 employees or more to work at the headquarters.

Honea also praised the Marana Center at Twin Peaks Road and Interstate 10. The project will be a premium outlet mall with more than 90 stores and eventually include an auto mall, large-scale retail center, hotels and restaurants.

Honea said Marana will focus on improving its infrastructure.

“We are going to invest in our future,” he said. “New water and sewer lines are going to be installed in key locations so that we are prepared to accommodate economic growth. We are going to work with each developer, business owner and investor to meet their needs, while ensuring quality development that enhances our community.”

Honea also focused on Marana’s Strategic Plan, which guides the town in its decision-making and resource allocation. The plan focuses on commerce, community, recreation, innovation and heritage. Honea broke his speech down to address what the town was doing to achieve its goals in each of those categories.

For commerce, he discussed the Duralar and outlet mall additions, as well as the town’s work with Pinal County to complete a master plan for Pinal Airpark, which Honea envisions as a shipping and logistics hub, as well as an economic center.

For community, Honea said the town would invest in the town’s cleanliness, safety, schools and efforts to maintain attractive landscaping. He said the goal is to create a sense of place that echoes that of Disneyland.

On the topic of recreation, Honea said the town wants more parks east of I-10, and will start down that path by building a neighborhood park on West Tangerine Road near Sky Ranch Estates.

Speaking about innovation, Honea said the town has developed a program to probe all facets of the community for ideas. He said the town’s new slogan, “Your Town,” came from such an effort. He sees the town’s branding — which will appear on town publications and websites — as a way to attract people to the community.

To focus on heritage, Honea said the town will continue to support the efforts of the Marana Heritage Conservancy, which highlights the town’s history and hosts an annual Founders’ Day celebration.

He also spoke of the coming start of Marana Heritage River Park, a 165-acre area that will include a ranch, farm, park and shops — all connected with walkways. The first stage, which will open in the fall, will be a community garden.

“The future is bright in Marana,” Honea said. “We are going to attract commerce. We are going to build community. We are going to encourage innovation. We are going to celebrate heritage. We are going to support recreation. We are making ‘Your Town’ a very special place to live.”

Old Lyme – Halls Road, the half-mile commercial stretch that begins with a modern intersection at Route 156 and ends at the historic district at Lyme Street, is dotted with restaurants, stores and offices – which landscape architect Sarah Wood McCracken describes as a series of seven distinct physical identities.

They range from a cluster of 1960s-style commercial buildings to marshes near the Lieutenant River, and they occupy a space near the center of town.

“How can these seven identities ever become assimilated to represent the unique identity of Old Lyme and the cultural, historic and business communities here?” asked McCracken, a local landscape architect, at a Wednesday business breakfast organized by the town and the Lyme-Old Lyme Chamber of Commerce.

About 30 people attended the event at the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library to hear about possibly developing a master plan for Halls Road.

The town wants to enhance the road, which is a stretch of federal Route 1, to ensure long-term economic development by encouraging passersby to linger and patronize shops and keeping the road attractive for businesses. At the same time, it aims to create more opportunities for residents to enjoy the area and unite the road with Lyme Street, tapping into the history of arts palpable on its main street, said First Selectwoman Bonnie Reemsnyder.

“This is a lot about what place-making is about,” she said. “Rather than getting people passing through, we want this to be an inviting stretch where people will stop and patronize our businesses.”

Possibilities include a town-owned open space area with benches for people to enjoy views of the nearby Lieutenant River. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection recently agreed to give the town a triangular parcel of land near a town-owned parcel, which could aid in creating such a space, said Reemsnyder.

Installing a bike lane and adding more landscaping were ideas that emerged after the Mentoring Corps for Community Development first approached her and the town about exploring ways to beautify the road, McCracken said. It could even become an outdoor arts gallery, she said.

The mentoring corps is a group of volunteers from Old Lyme that works on economic and community development.

McCracken said enhancing Halls Road could encourage customers to stay longer in the area, which would in turn help stores remain in business and attract new shops. The redesign could also “engender a feeling of pride in Old Lyme” and turn the area into a greater destination for eateries or other shops.

Attendees asked questions ranging from the project’s benefits to how to alleviate traffic congestion when drivers use Halls Road to avoid a traffic jam on Interstate 95.

Reemsnyder said the master plan will take traffic into account but added that if those drivers were to stop and patronize local businesses, the inevitable traffic could become less of a drawback. She stressed improving the area to make it attractive for businesses to stay. She said she would never want to see vacant storefronts along Halls Road.

“I think the economic benefit to the town and the residents is that we maintain the businesses that we do have,” she said. She added that while the town wants to maintain its character and doesn’t want big box stores or huge complexes, it should be creative about its economic development. She said the town originally began holding the breakfasts – the first one was in September – as a way to find solutions to comments tossed about that the town was “unfriendly to business.”

The town is aiming to acquire some grants for the project, which could be a phased-in process that could take up to 10 years to complete. The town envisions the project as a “collaborative effort” with local and regional groups, according to the presentation.

A yet-to-be-formed committee with local stakeholders will study ideas for enhancing Halls Road and building a greater sense of place there for business owners, residents and visitors.

Ultimately, an architectural firm could then develop a long-term master plan for the road. The firm’s tasks will include surveying the area’s topography, identifying rights of way, becoming familiar with local zoning laws and transportation regulations, and designing the area, said McCracken.

k.drelich@theday.com

GUILFORD Nearly two weeks after residents of the community adjacent to the site of the new Guilford High School expressed their concerns about the ongoing construction, the Board of Selectmen spent more than an hour Tuesday discussing possible solutions to the issues.

On April 17, the selectmen met with Long Hill Farm residents who were “frustrated and upset” with what they called a loss of privacy, scenery and peace and quiet as a result of the construction associated with Guilford’s new $92 million high school, according to meeting minutes.

Tuesday’s meeting served to explore how the town could address concerns from the residents and representatives from the Guilford High School Building Committee ultimately decided to take the lead in meeting with the project’s landscape architect and Long Hill Farm residents to discuss solutions to restore a landscaping buffer between the school and development.

“We’re happy the selectmen came out to our community and felt what we felt and they responded,” said Roy Smith, president of the Long Hill Farm Association. “We couldn’t ask for more support.”

“We want to work with them and not against them,” Smith added.

Mary Beeman of the Guilford High School Building Committee said she would bring the concerns of the residents to the rest of the committee and the project’s landscape architect.

“They’re essential to the process,” Beeman said of the residents.

Smith said the community’s major concern is the disruption of the “wooded barrier between the school and the community” and added that they would like their privacy restored.

Long Hill Farm residents said at the April 17 meeting that they were concerned about a drop in real estate values as a result of the construction as well as the loss of landscaping between the community and the school.

Robert Berkowitz, Long Hill Farm Association’s liaison to the building committee, indicated that residents aren’t looking to completely black out the school from the view of residents, but nonetheless would like a buffer between the school and the development.

“We’re not looking for high-end landscaping,” Berkowitz said. “I don’t think residents will mind a partial view of the building.”

Toward the end of the meeting, First Selectman Joseph Mazza urged the building committee to keep the residents informed and asked members of the committee to look into and address their concerns.

Call Sean Carlin at 203-645-9661. Have questions, feedback or ideas about our news coverage? Connect directly with the editors of the New Haven Register at AskTheRegister.com.

The first £15million stage of the redevelopment of Aylesbury town centre will focus on new restaurants, homes and open spaces – but not new shops.

Phase One of the masterplan, which is made public today, will see the area opposite the Odeon Cinema become a Mecca for restaurants, bars and flats facing a ‘new town square’.

Artists’ impressions show a grand, cloisters-style building housing eateries on the ground floor and flats above.

This is the third time plans for Exchange Street have been put forward over more than a decade, with the credit crunch shelving many of the previous proposals.

Neil Blake, who as leader of Aylesbury Vale District Council is jointly responsible for spearheading the project said: “It is quite fortunate in many ways that we didn’t go ahead with the plans when they were put forward a few years ago.

“This was when we were going to bring in an anchor department store in the redevelopment of the town centre. I think we were very lucky with the way that the economy has gone. The vision then was retail, the vision now is for less retail.

“The market has changed and people’s ideas have changed and the market for shops is not as strong.”

He added: “The success of the new Wagmama and Nandos is generating interest.

“Success breeds success and if restaurateurs see what is already going on they will want to come here.”

A planning application, which will be submitted in June this year will include around 2,250 square metres of food and beverage facilities, 3,950 square metres of residential space, 4,750 square metres of public open space and 350 square metres of community space.

The plans for phase one also include new pedestrian routes to Exchange Street and Walton Street from the town centre and enhanced landscaping around Judges Lodgings.If the application is successful the councils say that works could begin as early as spring 2015.

Martin Tett, leader of Bucks County Council, which is also responsible for the scheme together with Aylesbury Vale Advantage, said: “By utilising the assets of Aylesbury Vale District Council and Bucks County Council we can do so much.

“If more people come to live in the town centre they will use these bars and cafes, and the retail will thrive as well.

Bucks County Council has already submitted a planning application to complete the £2million groundworks for the phase one scheme.

This includes the demolition of the rear of the old county office buildings and one of the former police station buildings so that a temporary surface car park can be built. If approved the new car park will be open in late 2014. As a result of the proposed phase one project 95 parking spaces will be lost in Exchange Street surface car park.

To read other stories on the redevelopment plans, click on the links below.

Exchange Street to become boulevard with extra crossings and Hampden House to be redeveloped.

New masterplan doesn’t include any new shops for now.

How will we pay for this grand scheme?

Learn more about the blueprints here – and have your say.

The Levee Park Committee, in charge of revitalizing Winona’s underused riverside park, wants to make sure the plans don’t end up forgotten on a shelf.

The committee worried that if the Winona City Council, which will make the final decision on any plans for the park, got one large recommendation for what to do with the park, it would be too grand a concept — with too big a price tag — for the council to jump on board. That’s why the committee spent Tuesday’s meeting hashing out how to strategically present the plan to the council — which they plan to do in June.

“If we send just one item and say it’s what we want, there’s a real chance that we end up on the back shelf like many plans have,” Committee Chairman Frank Pomeroy said.

The group decided to break down each section of the plan — submitted by hired consultants — and make recommendations on each piece of the plan so it’s manageable, both in concept and for the purpose of prioritizing actions.

One member suggest hiring a professional to sort through the pieces price them before going to the city council.

“I do think we need a facilitating process,” committee member Natalie Siderius said. “A couple planners, an engineer, come up with those long and short term plans, what those dollar amounts might look like. Then we can make better recommendations. I think we should have that roadmap.”

Pomeroy said hiring someone else this late in the process could mean more delay and could detract from the value, talent and expertise already at the table. A number of committee members are city and county staff or former staff.

Other members agreed with Pomeroy, but a few stated that at some point a professional will need to be hired to help look at pricing and feasibility.

“We won’t know what it’ll cost until we have somebody look at,” Anderson said.

The committee was also a bit worried that if the plans weren’t moving forward fast enough the public would lose interest.

To ensure the momentum and energy continues, some committee members wanted to concentrate first on short-term goals that could be easily accomplished. It would let the public know work is in process and would give the city council small bites of the project that could be easily managed. Others cautioned that concentrating on small goals could delay the larger plan.

“There’s a fear of getting bogged down and having nothing happening,” committee member Owen Warneke said. “

“I would just caution that we don’t recommend a bunch of temporary fixes,” committee member Tina Anderson said.