Wilton nonprofit looks to raise $500,000 to rebuild town track

WILTON — As the founder and coach of two running clubs in town, Kevin Foley has spent a lot of time at the Wilton High School track. And over the years, he’s noticed signs of disrepair: structural cracks, surface peeling and delamination.

With an estimated average of 382 people using the track daily, he fears the town-owned facility won’t be usable if repairs are further delayed.

“It’s widely used and it’s in bad shape,” Foley said. “I’m not going to go as far as to say that it’s unsafe, but if it continues (unrepaired), it certainly will be.”

After talks with First Selectman Lynne Vanderslice and the Wilton Parks and Recreation Department, the most prudent way to fund the track renovation seemed to be through private funding, Foley said. So he teamed up with Bev Hermann, a member of the Wilton Track Association board of directors, to start a community-driven nonprofit called Back the Track.

Back the Track’s goal is to raise $500,000 to help rebuild the town track and to remedy all of its issues, including a subsurface that has reached the end of its useful life of 30-plus years and will not support further repairs or resurfacing.

This was the biggest issue Don Paige noticed when he visited the track in 2007 and in 2017. Paige, president and owner of The Paige Design Group, Inc., a premier track and field design company in the U.S., said the resurfacing done in 2007 was more of a quick fix than a long-term solution — leading to a worn out surface with a still-failing subsurface.

“When something’s starting to push 30-year-sold and you see the structural cracks, the thing that worries me most is to have somebody say, ‘Yes, we’re going to put a new surface.’ ... and in the next couple of years, we still have a failing track,” Paige said. “It’s gotten to the point where it needs serious renovation.”

In his plan for a sustainable and renewable track facility for the town, Paige advised a complete demolition of the track to build a new solid foundation and to add a nonporous surface that won’t lead to structural cracks as the current surface had done. His design also includes an increased area for synthetic surface, in the D-shaped areas between the curb and the turf field, to maximize the facility’s usability.

Paige estimates the installation and maintenance of a new surface would cost about $500,000, and the rebuilding of the subsurface would cost about $378,000.

When asked why Back the Track set the goal at $500,000 instead of the full $878,000, Foley said it is because he hopes the community and local sponsors will exceed that goal — as town residents and businesses have done in the past with other crowdfunding efforts.

“We just felt that somebody had to pick up the mantle here,” Foley said. “It’s used by a cross-section of the town, people of multiple generations, and it is a town asset.”

So far, the nonprofit has five sponsors, including the Wilton Running Club, the Wilton Track Association, the Connecticut Elite Track and Field, The Turnover Shop of Wilton, Inc., and Explorator Media.

Moving forward, Foley hopes more will become involved in the community-driven effort.

“I hope people don’t look for an easy way out, because I don’t think there is one,” Foley said. “When the subsurface is gone, anything that you don on the surface is going to be throwing money out the window.”

For more information, visit backthetrack.org or email wtabackthetrack@gmail.com.