Restoring the River View at Harbor Park

It was a dreamlike scene. The wind carried a river of cottonwood seed aloft, flowing in the same direction of the great grey river below, as the sun provided a backlight of the tiny airborne seed parachutes. On the river young women sweat and strained as the coxswain shouted encouragement in the heat of a high school regatta. On the shore another, volunteer crew from the Lions, from Middletown and from the Connection worked up a sweat on their own, pulling rope-thick vines of bittersweet and poison ivy, and hacking through sumac and suckers to clear the North End of Harbor Park. Under the watchful gaze of organizer Elizabeth Santangelo, and John Hall of the Jonah Center, the crew made surprising quick progress, restoring a wonderful view to the weed-choked banks of the Connecticut river North of the Route 9 tunnel access to the river.