The Dreamers - Andy Pappas and Jay Gionet. Two men with a Bold Vision.

Andy Pappas

The power of a dream isincalculable. East Lyme’s dream of providing more access to the town’swaterfront, began in 1866, over 139 years ago, when the residents of East Lyme

 met to discuss the possibility of constructinga town wharf into Niantic Bay. In her book, The East Lyme Handbook, the lateOlive Chendali, the Town Historian, described what later became known as theWharf Controversy. After heated discussion, because the citizens of that timecould not reach agreement, the project was abandoned.

 However, the dream was never really forgotten.In 1994, this dream once again surfaced, at a citizens’ planning committee,called Vision 2000, which was working to improve the appearance and quality oflife in Niantic and Flanders. With unparalleled enthusiasm, Jay Gionet and AndyPappas proposed the idea of a boardwalk, which would extend along Niantic Bayfrom the Hole in the Wall Beach to the Railroad Bridge.

  Subsequently, Jay Gionet and Andy Pappas wereinstrumental in founding the East Lyme Public Trust Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, comprised of residents and business people devoted to thebetterment of the Town of East Lyme. As Gionet wrote in 1997, the trust had“come together …to provide an improved quality of life, an environmentaleducational program, and most importantly, an increase in public access to allpeople who previously were restricted from the longest stretch of inaccessiblecoastline in the State of Connecticut.”

 Gionet went on to describe how the Trust had“taken our message from the doors of our own East Lyme Town Hall, to our StateDEP offices, and then on to the steps of Capitol Hill.” Each person who helpedthe project took on a different aspect of the task to assure that the projectwould become a reality for the residents and visitors to SoutheasternConnecticut. Senators, Representatives, Selectmen, Lawyers, Accountants,Biologists, Business people, Engineers, and Educators–all served the Trust inits decade long odyssey to make this dream a reality.

The determination andperseverance of Pappas and Gionet were what made the Boardwalk a reality.  Without their efforts, this cherished part ofour community would never have been possible.

Jay Gionet