Today is Friday, March 29, 2024 The Water Taxi is not running.

Thames River water taxi

It’s not only the Water Taxi that’s embarking on a shakedown cruise . . .

The Communications Committee of the Transition Team met with Thames River Water Taxi Captain Jackie Dietrich last week, as we went over scheduling and pricing plans for the summer. The Water Taxi should be taking its “maiden voyage” on June 10th, and depending on passenger interest they’ll be adjusting their pick-up and drop-off schedule as the season progresses. But expect it to run from Friday to Sunday starting at 10AM and going till 9PM. One “loop” of the sites takes approximately an hour.

water taxi line drawing

Here’s a link to their schedule page.

One of the ways in which we hope that the public (that’s YOU), the heritage sites, and local businesses help us with as the summer progresses is by providing as much feedback as possible. This is the first Heritage Park in the state, and all of us are on a shakedown cruise—no one has done this before. We need your suggestions, comments, questions, concerns (praise is good too) on anything you can think of: park accessibility, hours of operation, water taxi issues, prices, signage, access to businesses, information services, transportation, lack of ice cream vendors . . . anything you can think of, let us know! We want to make this Heritage Park a success for everyone.

You can use the comments section of this blog, or visit our Facebook Page, or write write to us at [email protected].

Over 100 attend TRHP informational forum

The Oasis Room at the Garde Theatre was standing room only last night, when over 100 state, municipal and heritage site representatives attended an informational presentation on the benefits of tying the various attractions in the Park together with a common theme, signage and programming. Alan Plattus, director of the Yale Urban Design Workshop, gave an overview of the master plan for the park and stressed the need for all involved agencies and municipalities to work together, share information, and look to other successful models of “trail” tourism throughout the country, and outside the US, for ideas on how to best promote the new Heritage Park.

Also announced at the meeting was the winner of the contract to operate the water taxi, which will begin taking passengers on Memorial Day. Jacklyn and David Dietrick from Voluntown will be operating as Thames River Water Taxi. The couple brings a wealth of experience to the Thames River Heritage Park Foundation, with piloting, mechanical and marketing expertise. They’ll be hiring crew members this summer as well. Groton City Mayor Marion Galbraith introduced them and added that the search committee was “really thrilled with their proposal.”

Alan Plattus addresses the crowdAlan Plattus addressing the audience

Transition Team Chair Chris Cox reminded the group that this was only the first of many such forums; future meetings with individual sites, arts and cultural organizations, and local businesses will follow throughout the coming months. It’s the goal of the Transition Team to have the Heritage Park be a collaborative effort with input and participation from all organizations and groups within the borderless park to help promote and encourage tourism, commerce, and preservation of the natural and historic resource that is the Thames River area.

Getting ready for Summer . . .

Thanks to Rita Rivera and two talented volunteers from the Communications Committee, a display ad has been developed for the regional tourism magazines and brochures, including Mystic Country, to let everyone know that many fun things will be happening on and around the Thames River this coming summer. Here it is, hot off the presses.

TRHP-MysticCountry-3.4x2.2-v3 FINAL

We’ll now be able to use this ad in lots of places, including our website and Facebook page, to share our excitement over the park.

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