Parishioners at the Congregational First Church of Christ in Clinton received a shock recently when they learned the town planned to abandon the entirety of Church Road. The short stretch of road around the church leads to the Academy Building on one side and connects Route 1 to Indian River Cemetery on the other.

At the Oct. 19 Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting, a motion made by selectmen Willie Fritz and John Giannotti to discontinue Church Road was unanimously approved. Over the summer, the Academy Building was sold to the First Church of Christ, but the town maintained ownership of the road leading up to the building. At the BOS meeting, the motion to discontinue the road was sent to Planning & Zoning and town meeting for further approval. The resolution passed through the Nov. 14 Planning & Zoning meeting, despite reservations expressed by several church members who attended the meeting.

Last week’s town meeting clarified the town’s reasons behind the motion to abandon the road and led to a resolution that satisfied both parties.

“They explained we were the only ones really on the road and there were a lot of private roads in Clinton that they do not maintain, and they would be hard-pressed to justify why they’re maintaining a piece of road that in the public’s eye seems only to be for the church,” said Phil Sengle, a member of the church board who attended the meeting. For the town, having sold Academy Building to the church, it was logical that the stretch of road by the building went with it.

For Sengle, it was more the lack of communication beforehand that rankled church members. Sengle said the church was not consulted in any official capacity about the issue. According to Sengle, Fritz first said the road to be abandoned was only the stretch in front of the Academy Building, but a legal notice that later appeared read that Church Road in its entirety would be abandoned.

“I think what certainly annoyed me and annoyed some people in the church was that there was hardly any communication with the church about this, and then all of a sudden it was in process,” he said. “I think at the meeting last night we cleared some of the air about it and indicated to town officials that they needed to communicate better.”

As part of the resolution between town and church, the town offered to continue to plow the part of the road that leads to the Indian River Cemetery. The church will be responsible for the section of road by the Academy Building. Signs will be erected proclaiming that it is a private road.

Sengle emphasized that although the road is private, the public will still be allowed to use it as they have in the past. It has served informally as everything from overflow parking for Town Hall and community events to a place for parents to drop off their children at Pierson School to avoid school traffic. However, parents using it for the latter purpose should note that since the town is no longer plowing that section of road, it might not be clear on weekday mornings. Other uses of the road include access to the town’s food pantry at the church and also the farmers’ market.

“Now we let the farmers’ market use it, the community pantry—they get a huge crowd on Wednesday evenings. I just felt personally we deserve a little consideration,” said Sengle.

“We’re not going to restrict anybody from using it; I can’t see we would ever do that,” Sengle continued. He added, “We would like people to realize it’s not a public thoroughfare.”

The history of Church Road—and church land in general—is tied in with town affairs. Years ago, the church requested that the town abandon part of Church Road that went behind the church so it could build a bigger parish hall. The request was granted, and a parish hall was built that today houses a kitchen, classrooms for Sunday School, and more. And about 20 years ago, the church traded 20 acres of land where Town Beach is located for a clear title to the church’s site.

At the town meeting, about 8 or 10 church members met with town officials including First Selectman Bruce Farmer, who served as moderator, along with the town clerk, Fritz, and Public Works Director Peter Neff. The officials voted to abandon the road.

“I think really we just wanted to express our concern about how this was handled and that they really didn’t talk to the proper people in the church regarding this. They decided on their own the church was OK with it, and we were all surprised by it,” said Sengle. “We just expressed concern that we need more open communication and it would have been much better had we been consulted in the past. In the end it was amicably settled.”